Kwara state All Progressives Congress (APC) is in deep crisis. The executive members of the party have been factionalised by supporters of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed and Bashir Bolarinwa, APC on the other.
The crisis has now assumed a frightening dimension with the factions hauling invectives at each other.
The pro-Lai Mohammed group, led by Bolarinwa, has frontally accused AbdulRazaq of not calling his alleged foot soldiers to order.
As a prelude to this open show of the theatre of the absurd, the Chairman’s convoy was attacked in Shao, Moro local government area. In fact, he and his entourage escaped by the whiskers, but the APC bus was vandalised.
The convoy was in the local government as part of a thank-you-tour of the 16 local government areas for the people’s votes for APC in last year general elections.
Some aggrieved APC executive members, led by the deputy chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Samari, fired the first cylinder by accusing Bolairnwa of running the party like a sole administrator and alleged shady financial deals, contrary to principles of the party.
“Unfortunately, rather than address the sundry issues that bother on the lack of accountability, transparency, equity, fairness, sacrosanctity of the provisions of the party’s constitution and our demand for same, a cabal within the Party Executive led by the Minister for information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, and the State Chairman, Hon. Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa, are deliberately diverting attention from the real issues and instead blaming some imaginary forces for the rising opposition against their autocratic leadership,” the group alleged.
The aggrieved members of the Kwara APC exco had accused the party chairman of financial misappropriation, recklessness and lack of fiscal discipline.
They said: “As at today, there is no evidence of a properly documented record of the party’s financial transactions. No records of inflow and outflow of funds, no evidence of compliance with the principle of internal control.”
Alhaji Samari said the chairman had made sustained efforts to frustrate the audit process in clear breach of the extant provisions of the party’s constitution he swore to uphold while the party hierarchy is constantly embarrassed by the failure or refusal of a leader of the party from the state, indeed a minister, who received hundreds of millions of naira from governors, captains of industry, and other stakeholders on behalf of the state chapter of the party ahead of the 2019 general election but never gave a kobo to the party or accounted for same. Mohammed denied the allegations.
Said he: “This failure to declare the good gestures of these donors made it difficult for the party to officially send appreciation letters to them, especially following the huge success the party recorded. Sadly, this has been the trademark of this individual throughout the political struggle in the state.” the leaders said.
“More worrisome is the refusal of BOB to acquire a befitting accommodation for the party, even after donations running into Millions of naira were sought and received from our party stakeholders when most of them were still Aspirants. Regrettably today, we (as a party) are housed in a wing of an apartment used for personal and political purpose by one of our respected Party chieftains. How does asking for the whereabouts of the money meant for the office accommodation become a crime in a Party like ours? All that is requested is accountability and nothing more.”
“We equally wonder how the request for the sources, modes of distribution and minutes of Executive Committee’s approval for such distribution become a crime to a chairman of the party that came to power on the strength of OTOGE mantra? As members of the State Executive, it is not lost on us the high responsibilities that come with such overwhelming support given to our Party by Kwarans. How we run our Party should be a model for others in party administration and discipline.”
The leaders explained that they represent thousands of party men and women who are thoroughly dissatisfied with their (BOB’s) lack of inclusion and respect for multiple opinions.
He, however, condemned the alleged attack on the convoy of the Chairman’s convoy in Moro and enjoined the security agencies to do the needful in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
He admitted that members and leaders in Moro are thoroughly aggrieved that the party chairman and his men continue to hold on to the party’s register in manners that violate ethics of transparency and democracy.
“While violence is never an option, we believe that the chairman should address these issues rather than always seeking to blame everything on some imaginary forces. Like Kwarans did in March with their Otoge tsunami, every human being has their boiling point if oppressed and alienated for too long,” he said.
He urged the chairman to create the environment friendly enough to provide answers to all the issues raised by saving himself and the party the embarrassment of the current accommodation, using part of the money raised then for another accommodation befitting of a ruling Party with wonderful, selfless and committed members.
“The chairman should restrain his media warriors from doing the job of the police by apportioning blames before investigation since the security agencies, we believe, have been properly briefed and we trust are better motivated to deal with all forms of crimes, given the kind of support they now enjoy from our government.”
The Bolasinwa’s group in its response fingered the governor as being responsible for the internal wrangling rocking the party in the state.
It added there has been a gaping disconnect between Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the party and ‘revered elders of the party.’
Leading the pack of Bolarinwa’s group is APC vice chairman, Kwara North, Chief Sunday Oyebiyi.
Oyebiyi said: “This scenario has been in place since after the party primaries, during and indeed after the elections.”
He said that “severally, party elders had tried to wade into the matter by meeting with the state state APC chairman, Minister for Information and Culture and the governor himself.
“However, a follow up meeting with the governor to resolve the areas of differences has not been possible because the governor has refused to grant audience to the elders.
“Suffice to say that while we blame the aggrieved exco members for taking the party for granted, it is however, a case of the biblical ‘hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob.’ Indications point to the governor as being behind the rebellion of this group.
“It is a well known fact that all hands were on deck during the election under the aegis of one APC, it was after victory had been won, that splinter groups with a recurring AA acronym began to spring up.
“The promoters of these groups have acted in ways inimical to the constitution of the party. Their activities presuppose a parallel structure to the party structure and they bandied the name of the governor as giving approval to their activities.
“Not once, has the governor or his representative come out to denounce them, rather they are financed from the government house. The turncoat publicity secretary of APC has revealed that much in his radio programmes.
He said the soul of APC in the state is being threatened by “political marauders.”
Oyebiyi said: “We call on all genuine party members to join us in the tortuous task of saving our party from leeches and serial jobbers. Before we know it elections will stare us in the face, we must be ready to account for the mandate that was given to us in agony and bloodshed by Kwarans.
“Our actions are guided by this realisation. The other group and their sponsors care less and would rather take the mandate for granted. That is the fundamental difference; those who care about the people and those who are concerned about their palate.”
Oyebiyi added: “Many party elders had tried to wade into the matter by meeting with the state APC chairman, Minister for Information and Culture and the governor himself.
“Suffice to say that while we blame the aggrieved exco members for taking the party for granted, it is however a case of the biblical ‘hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob.’
“It is a well known fact that all hands were on deck during the election under the aegis of one APC, it was after victory had been won, that splinter groups with a recurring AA acronym began to spring up.
On the refusal of the chairman to secure a befitting secretariat, Bolarinwa said “all the aggrieved members participated in the party secretariat handing over ceremony donated by a respected party leader, Alhaji Yakubu Gobir.
“Indeed, Alhaji Samari, the aggrieved deputy chairman was the chairman of the committee for the handing over ceremony and a few of his so-called aggrieved co travellers served on the committee.”
Another group under the aegis of the Kwara APC Integrity Vanguards (KAIV) said the allegations of the aggrieved APC exco members against Bolairnwa and the minister are illogical.
It said that the allegations were drawn from speculations against the party chairman and the minister with a sinister motive to heat up party politics. The National coordinator and publicity secretary, Abdullahi Yinka Onimasa and Kayode Aliyu Bamidele, said party leaders were acting divisive script of their sponsor, “targeting our state chairman, Bashir Bolarinwa, the minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and other notable leaders of our party who have invested their times, energies and resources, but have today become targets of their daily verbal missiles.
KAIV said: “First, we want everyone to know that this is not the first time these desperate stomach infrastructure and appointment seekers who now described themselves as aggrieved persons will be throwing illogical allegations drawn from their speculations against the party chairman with a sinister motives to heat up party politics, stir up the chairman’s emotions so as to give their power obsessed sponsor avenue to dismantle the validly constituted party structures and replace with their co-desperate stomach infrastructure, appointment seeking parasites.
“Bashir Bolarinwa, an experienced party man and an advocate of party disciplines and supremacy understands all their evil plots and will never be distracted by sponsored attacks of few frustrated elements acting scripts of their sponsor within the party.”
“It is so tiring that these people keep exposing themselves to public ridicules with their unintelligent speculations about Bolarinwa.”
* Courtesy The Nation