Kwara APC leadership crisis deepens as lawmakers tackle Lai Mohammad

• We’re warned against supporting Gov Abdurrazaq – Minister

The leadership tussle rocking the All Progressives Congress in Kwara State does not seem to abate as members of the state House of Assembly have accused Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, of attempting to impose himself on the state.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and the minister have been having a running battle.

But the minister has taken a swipe at the governor and his supporters, saying they were power drunk and expressed regrets supporting Abdulrazaq.

Speaking at press briefing at the NUJ Press Centre in Ilorin, the state capital, on Sunday, Speaker of the House, Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, said the minister did not in any form support the then APC House of Assembly candidates during the campaigns and election.

Danladi-Salihu, who spoke through the Deputy Speaker of the House, Honourable Raphael Olanrewaju Adetiba, said Mohammed was no where to be found during the campaign and election that produced the Ninth Legislature.

He said the only individual who could claim offering the members massive support during the election is Governor AbdulRazaq.

The speaker said the briefing is jointly held on behalf of 21 of the 24 members of the Assembly whom he said were “convinced that Kwara can no longer be brought under any godfather or slave driver.

“We ordinarily should have ignored the Minister and took it as another lie from Lai Mohammed but for the unsuspecting members of the public and posterity, the record needs to be set straight.”

Flanked by other lawmakers, he also said, “Lai Mohammed did not give any support in any form to members of the 9th legislature during the campaign and election; if he did, he should name who and what he gave out. Could the Minister be mixing things up on account of his old age?

“For God knows reason, Lai Mohammed did not participate in any of our campaigns and did not also contribute financially to it. It was the then Governorship candidate of our party, the APC, who supported our campaigns all through. For the records, all the twenty-four members of the House of Assembly received financial support from His Excellency Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq for the purpose of prosecuting the House of Assembly election, so Lai Mohammed should please stop telling lie to the people.

“Apart from the governorship candidate (His Excellency Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq), the other support was the sum of N500,000 each that we received from the national headquarters of our party, APC. Other than that, it was the Governor who funded our expenses including logistics, souvenirs, posters and other campaign materials. Even so, at no time did the Governor go about telling anyone that he funded our campaign.

“It is also laughable that Lai Mohammed could claim to have personally raised money to finance the 2019 general elections in Kwara State. The question that would readily come to mind is: What is Lai’s contribution to his own Ward, Local Government, District and Kwara in general to have earned him respect and reputation for people to trust him and donate money to him.”

The lawmakers advised the minister not to drag them into any fuss he may be having with the governor and leader of the part in the state.

But speaking while inaugurating the secretariat of a faction of the APC in Kwara, the minister said literarily drew the battle line with the governor when he openly criticised him and lamented that “we were warned about his choice then but failed to listen”.

Mohammed who was in Ilorin to commission the new party secretariat of the Bashir Bolarinwa-led faction of the party was making his first public statement on the protracted crisis.

He said, “It has got to the point where we have to speak out. We have been pushed to the wall and we have no choice to come out and exposed there lies and pretensions.

“It was immediately after the governor emerged as the party’s candidate for the election that it dawned on us that we have entered one chance.

“But despite all the warnings from concerned party leaders and others who had reservations about his choice, our reaction then was that no matter what, his choice was better than where we were coming from. But we were wrong.”

The minister also spoke on the call by the governor for the minister and other party leaders to account for the funds that accrued to the party during the campaign, the minister said,

“Nothing of such happened. I single handedly by the grace of God with the support of friends, politicians and associates raised all the money for all the elections we had in Kwara during that period starting from the by-election that brought in Hon Raheem Olawoye (Ajulo Opin) as rep member.

“Nobody gave the party a dime for logistics apart from what I gave. I distributed 500 motorcycles and 200 vehicles and many of the beneficiaries are seated here today. I challenge them to explain to Nigerians and all of you what happened to the balance of the N70m that Ajulo-Opin refused to give us from the N150m that I facilitated to prosecute the elections.

“When it was time for the governorship election, we didn’t see him (the governor) and we could not wait. So we financed the election with the money raised. They got there today and forget those who worked hard to get them there but rather selling lies and dummies.”

He said there would not be congress in Kwara state without the registration of the members who have not been able to do so.

“About two weeks ago, myself, Prof Shuaib Oba, Alhaji Tajudeen Audu met with the national chairman of the APC on the issue. He assured us that Kwara is a special state and there will be no congress until we are all registered.”