By John Ikani
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has accused Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of biting the fingers that fed him, citing how he singlehandedly sponsored the governor’s election in 2019.
Mr Mohammed, who hails from Kwara South, said this on Saturday in Ilorin at the inauguration of a new state secretariat of the party.
“By the grace of God, I single-handedly, with the support of friends, politicians and families, raised all the money for all the elections we had in Kwara during that period, starting from the by-election that brought in honourable Raheem Olawuyi (Ajuloopin) as rep member.
“I challenge anybody here to say who gave the party one penny apart from what I gave them. The money paid to party agents and leaders to mobilise voters was raised by me.I challenge anybody here to say that he gave logistic support to the party, I did it by the grace of God.
“I distributed 500 motorcycles, 20 vehicles and many of the beneficiaries are here,’’ Mr Mohammed said.
The minister also spoke about the controversial registration and revalidation exercise of the APC in the state, which he assured would be conducted again. He had earlier alleged that the exercise was marred by infractions in February.
Both Mr Mohammed and AbdulRazaq have been at loggerheads after the All Progressives Congress (APC) coasted to victory in 2019.
The minister and some other pivotal members of the APC that played a major role in the ousting of the Saraki hegemony in the state have accused Governor AbdulRazaq of sidelining them in his administration of the state.
The governor, on the other hand, said he would not use state resources to reward party loyalty as allegedly expected by some APC members.
This rift was ,however, widened with the removal of Bashir Bolarinwa as caretaker chairman of the party in the state.
Mr Bolarinwa, loyal to the bloc opposed to the governor, was replaced with Abdullahi Samari, a development some see as an attempt by Mr AbdulRazaq to usurp the party structures in the state.
