The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed on Saturday in Ilorin, Kwara State, noted that they were warned not to support the governor of the state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq during the 2019 governorship election in the state.
The Minister who was in the state capital to commission the All Progressives Congress new secretariat of the Bashir Bolarinwa led faction disclosed this in public.
According to him, “It has gotten 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 their 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.”
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 will 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. When the officials are around, come out in your thousands for the exercise to let them know where the power lies”, he submitted.
