Indications emerged yesterday that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, is moving against loyalists of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki in government as Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, yesterday directed the Senate President’s loyalists in the various agencies of the Federal Government to resign from office or be sacked.
Mohammed, who gave the directive at a press conference in his country home, Oro, in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, also canvassed the dissolution of the Kwara State executive of the party led by Alhaji Ishola Balogun Fulani which is loyal to Senator Saraki.
The assertions were immediately dismissed by the Fulani-led executive which through its Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Sulyman Buhari, said the state executive is a product of due process as he affirmed that Mohammed lacks the power to dissolve. The National Publicity Secretary of the Reformed All Progressives Congress, R-APC, Prince Kassim Afegbua, in his reaction, said the Information Minister was the first beneficiary of Saraki’s political patronage and should resign as he said that Saraki paved way for his ministerial clearance.
Speaking yesterday after a meeting of state stakeholders in Oro, the minister 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 minister further explained that “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 levels that would produce another leadership in the state.’’ He said that pending that time, Alhaji Bashir Bolarinwa’s leadership would hold sway in the state.
He stressed: “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, therefore, warned that if they failed to resign their appointments as directed, “the Federal Government would sack all of them unannounced.”
