By Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
Some stakeholders in Kwara State All Progressives Congress (APC) have kicked against the alleged move by the state governor, Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, to replace Hon. Bashir Bolarinwa as the Chairman of the party’s caretaker Committee in the state.
They described the alleged move as illegal, illogical and unacceptable.
Speaking at a press conference in Ilorin on Thursday night, the spokesperson of the group and APC leader in the state, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, vowed that, “we would not allow the governor to change the winning team of the party structures that produced him as the executive governor and other elected representatives of the party in the state.”
Oyedepo, who was flanked by the representative of Minister of state for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, Barrister Oladimeji Mustapha, who is the state legal adviser of the party; and representative of Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
Mr Ayo Obisesan, stated that, “We will not allow any selfish individual to achieve what is not possible in the political administration of party to draw the APC back in Kwara state.”
Among the factions in the fractured APC, only the representative of Governor Abdulrahman AbdulRasaq was absent at the press conference.
Oyedepo at the press conference expressed concern that Governor AbdulRazaq had not invited Hon. Bashir Bolarinwa for the swearing in ceremony that will take place in Abuja Friday.
He said, “The information at our disposal is that Governor AbdulRazaq has gone to the national headquarters of the party to urge the national caretaker committee to exempt Bolarinwa from the swearing in ceremony on the ground that Kwara executive of 2018 was not a product of a congress.”
Oyedepo, who said members of other groups in the party were not carried along by the governor in his current decision despite the ongoing peace parley among them, said, “the state executive committee of the party established in 2018 under Bolarinwa chairmanship was duly constituted by members of the party, including the governor.
“And when that executive was challenged by Alhaji Balogun Fulani, the erstwhile chairman of the party that later defected to PDP, he failed up to the Supreme Court of Nigeria which decision was given on April 19, 2019.
“That decision has put to rest the illegality claim on the composition of the state executive committee of the party in Kwara State.
“Based on the said Supreme Court decision, it will be illegal, illogical and certainly unacceptable to base exclusion of Kwara state on the national policy of the party now.”
He noted that, “the efficiency of our structure and high tolerance of party members accounted for APC 100 percent score in the general election of 2019. We therefore urge all powers in APC not to tamper with the smooth operation of a winning team.”
