Former lawmaker and ex-chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Kabiru Marafa, has vowed to cut one million votes from President Bola Tinubu's tally in the 2027 presidential election.
Marafa, who represented Zamfara Central in the Senate from 2011 to 2019, made the declaration on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme on Monday, shortly after announcing his resignation from the APC.
"I'm going to assure you something today. I'm going to deduct one million out of Mr. President's votes that he got in 2023. Mark my words. I'm going to do it. I would work for it and by the special grace of God, I'm going to win that," Marafa declared.
The former senator, who served as the Zamfara State Coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima campaign in 2023, accused the President of adopting a "use-and-dump" style of politics.
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He dismissed labels that described him as politically irrelevant. "Now, whether somebody said that I'm paperweight, I'm a lightweight; whatever I am, 2027 is going to determine who is a paperweight," he said.
Marafa further claimed that widespread discontent with the APC in Zamfara had united top politicians against the ruling party.
"Because of the heavy disenchantment of the people, anybody that you can call substance in Zamfara State, we're on one side," he said.
He recalled how Dauda Lawal, who had little political experience before 2023, defeated established political heavyweights in Zamfara, including former governors and several lawmakers, due to growing resentment against the APC.
Marafa alleged that President Tinubu failed to fulfil his campaign promise of reforming the APC's internal reward system, which he said had been corrupted under the Buhari administration.
"People were not happy with the tail end of Buhari's government. He promised that he was going to eradicate the concept of monkey dey work, baboon dey chop. Only for him to entrench it, institutionalise it, and it became the state policy of the APC," Marafa stated.
