Senator Marafa To Hamed Ali, Resign If Buhari’s Govt Has Derailed

Kabir Garba Marafa, Senator representing Zamfara central senatorial district described the statement by Hamid Ali about the current administration in which he is serving is like passing a vote of no confidence in it.

Marafa stated that Ali’s statement was “politically irresponsible.” He berated Hamid Ali for describing the Buhari’s administration as derailing.

Marafa, who fielded questions from journalists in Abuja on Saturday, urged the Customs boss to leave Buhari’s government if he believed in what he said.

The senator alleged that the Customs boss did not influence up to 100 votes for Buhari in the 2015 election, stressing that Ali was benefitting from an administration more than his contribution to it.

He said, “When he talked about derailing, to me, if actually he believed in what he said, he should resign. He should resign because what he did was like passing a vote of no confidence in a government in which he is serving. He is part of the derailment because the position the President gave him is not befitting him. What was his contribution?

“He said 50 per cent of the people who formed the government are from the PDP. If I was there, I would have asked him to expatiate. Is he talking of the PDP members who left the party and joined the APC to secure its victory or is he talking of the PDP as it is today? If he is talking of the people who left the PDP to join the APC, with all sense of responsibility, I think it is politically irresponsible to say that because these were the people who joined hands with the APC to bring about this government.

“In politics, anybody, who identifies with you and joins you before ballots are cast, is part and parcel of your struggle. Anybody at whatever stage they join before going to the polls is part of you and your victory. It is only those who join you after election that can be called any name.”

The lawmaker, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), said Ali and those behind the idea of the BSO were out to sabotage Buhari and his government.

He said, “On the opening of the office called BSO, it is politically inexpedient now. Buhari is already the President and he became President by popular votes; he was voted for by all Nigerians.

“So, how do you now take a whole national idea back to BSO? Buhari has gone beyond BSO. Even by his own assertion, he said the idea started in 2003 and moved to 2007 and that he joined it in 2011 and it came to 2015.”