BY UMMU ABUBAKAR
A member of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Saheed Popoola, has alleged that Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is the problem of the All Progressives Congress in the state.
He said as a result of this, only the Governor could resolve the crisis.
“I can say it categorically that the problem we have is the governor. Our governor is supposed to be a leader of the party, but he is not really taking up that responsibility,” Popoola, who is the lawmaker representing Balogun/Ojomu Constituency in the House of Assembly, claimed.
He spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Ilorin while reacting to the crisis rocking the party in the state.
The lawmaker told NAN that he was present at the Abuja meeting convened recently by the National Secretariat of the APC to resolve the crisis.
He said, “I was invited by the National Secretariat of the party. Specifically, the Secretary wrote to Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, as an individual and he wrote to Bashir Bolarinwa, the Caretaker Chairman, to come in company with 10 other people.
“He then wrote to the governor to come with 11 other people making 12; Alhaji Lai Mohammed was with us, making 12.”
Popoola said instead of bringing everybody on board, be fair and just to everyone, the Governor formed AA, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq forum, immediately APC won the election.
“These people are now overriding the party’s structure and machinery. Who will allow that? We suffered for this party, up till now, we are suffering for the party, so we would not allow anybody to just take over and rubbish our efforts,” he noted.
“Those people the governor thought are sympathising with him as members of the AA group want to lord themselves over every other person within the party and that is where the problem is. This is the genesis of the problem,” Popoola said.
He, however, said the governor could still resolve the crisis in the party by embracing constitutionalism and due process.
“Everything that we are talking about on the crisis still stops at the table of the governor; if he wants it to be settled, it will be settled immediately. If the governor doesn’t want it to be settled, there is nobody on earth that will settle it.
“If I am to meet the governor today, I will tell him the same thing, I will say, my governor, you are the problem of the party,” Popoola said.
He added that it was disgraceful that a body headed by Gov. Sani Bello of Niger had to be constituted to resolve the ongoing crisis in Kwara.
“Gov. Bello told us that he had his own problems. It is a disgrace to us that it is the governor of Niger that is calling us together.
“If I were the governor, on that day, I would rise up and say, Mr Governor of Niger, Secretary of the party, I thank all of you, I think at this point, we will go back home and settle our matter.
“Who knows what will happen in 2023? It is only God that knows, but I know that it is the governor that can resolve this crisis. He has the knife and the yam,” he said.
Popoola also said there was no affirmation for Abdullahi Samari to replace Bolarinwa as caretaker chairman of the party in the state.
“The Niger State Governor said categorically that any letter given to Samari must have been done in error because the body set up had not reported back to the National Working Committee of the party.
“What he really meant was that we should reverse to the status quo,” he said.
When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, declined comments on the allegations against AbdulRazaq, saying he would not comment on political issues.
The spokesman of the party in the state, Tajudeen Folaranmi, also told a NAN correspondent on the phone that he was busy at a forum and would respond in a message later.
