As the crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara state festers, supporters of Governor AbdulRahman Abdul Razãq has warned the Minister of Communications and Minister of state for Transportation, Lai Mohammed and Gbemi Saraki respectively to refrain from sponsoring the mounting opposition against the governor
The group which briefed the media yesterday in Abuja regretted that the governor has-been facing opposition from certain members of the APC in the state, led by the the pro Lai Mohammed party Chairman, Bolanle Bola runway, who was recently removed by the National Secretariat, despite his numerous achievement in the state.
The group, which included APC elders in the state, former Commissioners, National Assembly members, as well as stakeholders were led by Barr Kunkle Suleiman and Nurudeen Mohammed.
Suleiman noted that though the group has no intention to reignite the otoge spirit that earlier consumed the Saraki dynasty, Otoge is already against Lai Mohammad and Gbemi Saraki, who they claim were behind the attacks on the governor.
“Let me tell you straight we are not trying to ignite anything, otege is already against them. They can come to Abuja and said whatever nonsense. Let each of them come to their local government and said it. People I call them paper weight politicians. I’m from Illorin West, the same local government with Professor Oba we have tried our strength repeatedly in the PDP, so I don’t even recognize him as a strong politician. We are introducing a new system of government and all of you have seen it. Therefore we are not igniting anybody against them but once they go against otege, otege will fight them.
On the claims by the anti governor group that they have the capacity to remove him from office as he never won the APC ticket abinitio, the stakeholders noted that “He was the candidate of the party. So as far as I’m concerned I should blame them for giving him the ticket. Because I came and met him as the candidate and he asked me to take over the campaign and I did and delivered and God in his infinite mercies give us victory. Now if people choose not to be with him, it’s their damn business. If two or ten Ministers are not with him and the people of the State are with him, it’s all well and good. If they are not with him, we have Senators here around who are representatives of the people accross the State and for goodness sake and Ambassador is with him. So what next if a Minister is not with.
“The pre- primary events and the actual primary which they talked about, I just laugh. Let me tell you what’s APC in Kwara today, is mainly people who defected from PDP i order to run away from Bukola Saraki when he defected from APC back to PDP. And we knew ourselves. We knew where were coming from. I knew coming from PDP we will constitute the majority of APC and will vote for Abdulrahaman Abdulraza. The result of the primary is clear. Abdulrahaman scored 29, 000 plus. The second person, Professor Oba Abdulraheem scored 23, 000 while Shuaibu 22,000. Primaries were conducted at every ward in Kwara, the results were collated .
“This gang up of failed gubernatorial aspirants, most of them appealed to the Electoral Committee and they lost their appeal on clear grounds. Gentlemen of the press, the story about not winning the primary is not right. Some of the gubernatorial aspirants whose names I want toe mention continue to support the Governor from the moment he won the ticket. One is Moshood Mustapha, former Member of House of Representatives. There is Dele Gbegole who is solidly behind him. There is Ambassador Sereki who is with him and Kawu who are solidly with him. Those who felt they must be leaders in hell rather than followers in heaven led by Professor Oba Abdulraheem continue to give problem to the Governor. If the Governor loses, it is APC that is losing. So we see them as people who are no longer interested in APC .”
