The All Progressives Congress (APC) appears ready to go for broke against Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, in Kwara State following recommendations of a faction of the party loyal to Information and Culture Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The faction wants all those enjoying federal government offices and positions, courtesy of Saraki, to be shown the door.
But the mainstream faction has described Mohammed and his group as jokers amid suspicions that the mainstream group may defect to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) once Saraki gives the nod.
Just yet, no mention has been made about the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Bolaji Abdulahi, and others in the National Working Committee who are known loyalists of Saraki and his renegade group in the ruling party.
At the close of a meeting in Oro, Irepodun Local Government Area, where Lai Mohammed has his home, the faction called for a new party congress to sack the sitting State Executive led by Balogun Fulani.
But Fulani’s group declared in a statement Sunday: “”The Ishola Balogun-Fulani led State Executive Committee of the APC is a product of law and due process.
“It was an executive duly inaugurated by the NEC of the APC as the authentic and legitimate. It’s not a jankara executive that Lai Mohammed and his other irrelvant Abuja-based colleagues wanted unsuccessfully to foist on the party during the last congress.”
The Information Minister was at the meeting held in Oro on Sunday and said:
“A meeting of stakeholders in Kwara State, held at Oro, on Sunday, 29 July 2018, resolved as follows:
“That the Balogun Fulani-led Kwara APC executive committee be immediately dissolved and a fresh congress that will include all Kwara APC members and those who are just coming into the party be held at the various levels to constitute a new executive.”
“That all those who got appointments by deceit, hiding under the facade of being party men and women, should immediately resign such appointments or be fired.”
“That the recent gale of defections has now put the APC in a position of true majority in the National Assembly, as those who remain are the ones who are truly committed to the ideals of our great Party
“That all members and supporters of our great party restate their unflinching support for President Muhammadu Buhari and assure him of a harvest of votes from Kwara State in the 2019 General Elections.
“That all members should remain calm because there is no cause for alarm ”
“The new development was as a result of the wide consultations with all the stakeholders in the state, since Friday, which climaxed yesterday.”
“There would be another Congress from the ward, local government and the state that would produce another leadership in the state”,saying that pending that time, Alh Bashir Bolarinwa’s leadership would hold sway in the state.
“It is unacceptable that members of the party who refused to desert the party would not benefit from the government, while those who have decamped to other political parties would still hold on to the political appointment of a party they have dumped.”
He thus warned the Saraki associates to resign from their government positions failing which “the federal government would sack all of them unannounced.”
“With the knowledge of the national chairman of the ruling party Comrade Adams Oshiomole, I therefore plead with our esteemed members of the party in the state to remain calm”.
“The doors of the party is widely opened to members who are willing to return to the party”.
However, the Fulani group was not done with the Information and Culture Minister. It added in its statement: “Alhaji Lai Mohammed lacks the locus to call for the dissolution of the lawfully elected members of the State Executive Committee of the APC in Kwara. He is neither a member of the State Executive Committee nor a member of the APC National Executive Committee.
“Worst still, he’s not recognised as a leader of the party even in his Oro ancestral home, how much more across Kwara State. A man that did not attend the last congresses of the APC nor vote during the process does not have the standing to call for the dissolution of the executives that lawfully emerged from that process.
“The tragedy of a character like Lai Mohammed is that they forgot that we are in a democracy where the rule of law reigns supreme. No matter how much they try, the only lawfully recognised executives of the APC in Kwara State at the moment is the Balogun Fulani led executives. No amount of name calling and blackmail can change that.”