APC crisis
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 the governor for the purpose of prosecuting the House of Assembly election, so Lai Mohammed should please stop telling lies to the people.
“Apart from the governorship candidate, 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?
“We, therefore, wish to implore Alhaji Lai Mohammed to please count us out of the problem or squabble he may have with the governor and focus on his assignment as a minister while we concentrate on ours as lawmakers.
“At the level of the state government and as lawmakers, the people of the state can point to the positive differences we have made in their lives. We have facts and figures to justify our stewardship.
“Kwarans are counting how many months are left for Lai Mohammed as minister and how many federal government’s project he has brought to his own village, Samora, Oro Kingdom, Kwara South and Kwara State in general.
“We state unequivocally that we stand with the governor. We are comfortable with his humility, his kindness, his team spirit, his commitment to a greater Kwara State, and his measured and peaceful approach to issues in the face of provocations.”
While the battle line is drawn now between loyalists of the two groups, they are looking up to the national leadership to intervene.
According to Chief Iyiola Oyedepo, a former majority leader of the State House of Assembly, the crisis has degenerated to the level beyond what the two groups could amicably resolve without the intervention of “the third party”.
Oyedepo, a loyalist of Lai Mohammed’s faction told The Guardian in a chat in Ilorin said, “we have not exhausted all the available options to resolve the crisis. We had reported the matter to the highest authorities of the party at the national level but as we speak, there has not been any concrete solution to it.
“We learnt that the national body is sending down persons to intervene. It has gone beyond what we can settle internally now. We suddenly discovered that strange bedfellows were behind the ‘ O To Ge’ movement about two years ago.
“I was not satisfied with the leadership styles of the two former governors before Abdulrazak; Bukola Saraki and Abdulfatah Ahmed. I told the people of the possibility of a change. But Abdulrazak was imposed on us as a candidate; he was never the popular choice. At this stage, without any intervention from the national body, I Chief Akogun of Igbomina land and Abdulrazak can no longer be in the same political party beyond this point.”