Some elders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State on Thursday called for the immediate suspension of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alh Lai Mohammed, from the party over allegations of his continuous efforts to divide the party in the state, and his attacks on the person of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
They equally demanded the removal of Mohammed as a minister from the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Addressing a news conference in Ilorin, the state capital, on behalf of members of the APC elders’ caucus, Prince Sunday Fagbemi said that Mohammed was no longer fit to represent the people of Kwara State in the federal cabinet.
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Fagbemi was flanked by prominent APC stalwarts in the state, including Barr. Kunle Sulaiman, Chief Wole Oke, Alh Abubakar Ndakene, and Chief Simon Ajibola, Fagbemi accused the minister of deliberately factionalising the ruling party in the state.
He argued that the unveiling, last Saturday, of a new APC secretariat in Ilorin by Mohammed and his endorsement of Alh Bashiru Bolarinwa as a factional chairman of the party amounted to deliberate factionalisation of the party.
He further accused the minister of a plan to divide the party along with the defunct Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and the defunct Congress For Progressive Change (CPC) lines.
While pointing out that it was the same people that recently formed Kwara Third Force that attended the unveiling of the APC’s factional secretariat, the elders’ spokesman said: “The question to be asked is whether the new secretariat is for their new party called Third Force or for APC?
“It’s clear to those of us who are politicians and who understands the dynamics of Kwara politics that majority of those who attended the unveiling ceremony of Alh Lai’s secretariat are members of his erstwhile campaign organisation- Lai Mohammed Campaign Organisation ( LAMCO) to whom he distributed all the cars and motorcycles belonging to APC in the 2019 general elections.
“The estranged relationship between him and the governor, who by the party’s constitution, is the leader of the party, is most uncalled for. His continuing encouragement and support for factionalisation of the party is divisive and disruptive to the party. It is anti–party. He cannot contest the leadership of the party with the governor.
“We, therefore, call for the immediate suspension of Alh Lai Mohammed as a member of the APC in Kwara State for his actions. We also call for his removal as a minister from the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari for he is no longer fit to represent the interest of people of Kwara State.”