The Senator Kabiru Marafa faction of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara state on Saturday conducted parallel congress in the 14 local government areas of the state.
The action followed threats by Sen. Marafa last Sunday to defy Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC which had earlier conducted its own Congress in the state.
State leader of the faction, Alhaji Surajo Maikatako, told journalists shortly after the parallel congress, that thousands of their members across the 14 local government areas of the state participated in the exercise.
According to him, the parallel congress was conducted peacefully.
He commended security agencies for the support given to them during the exercise.
Maikatako, who is a chairmanship aspirant in the state chapter of the APC, accused the national leadership of the APC of taking sides with the Zamfara state governor, Bello Matawalle.
He said immediately after the state APC congress, the faction will drag the national leadership of the party to court to challenge their action.
“We are going to challenge the APC national leadership for siding with the state governor. We will go to court to compel the national leadership of the party to recognize our camp. We are the legitimate faction,” he said.
However, the APC under the former governor Abdulaziz Yari’s faction said it boycotted the congress following its pending suit at the Federal High Court Gusau.
The publicity secretary of Yari’s camp, Alhaji Ibrahim Muhammad Birnin Magaji, described the ongoing exercise as illegal.
“Our stand is that we will not be party to an illegality. The exercise they call congress to us is a charade because we have a subsisting case before the Federal High Court, Gusau,” he said.