•’Peace has returned to Kwara APC’
Claims by Senate President Bukola Saraki that President Muhammadu Buhari hated Kwara State has been faulted by a political group, Ilorin Emirate for Buhari (IEB).
Saraki, on Tuesday, attributed his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to alleged hatred Buhari has for the state, saying the loathing informed alleged passing over for juicy federal government’s appointments of the state’s indigenes.
“We discussed this issue last week when I came home. You told me that you were tired of the APC, but I asked you to be patient. I told you that I will seek God’s guidance and feed you back on my return to Ilorin.
“The Federal Government appointed over 200 persons into juicy offices without allotting any slot to me or Dogara. Everything went to Katsina, Katsina, Lagos. If not for the love I have for Nigeria, we would have scattered everything. They don’t want us in their party. They don’t like us in Kwara.
“What I am after is for my people to enjoy dividends of democracy. I want us to be in the party that will love my people. Wherever we are, we will win elections. The governor told me he’s tired of the APC,” Saraki told his supporters.
But IEB, in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Rotimi Sulyman, faulted Saraki’s claim that the Buhari led-federal government disliked Kwara and did not consider her people worthy of juicy appointments.
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to snide bile spewed by the Senate President at President Muhammadu Buhari. Saraki’s remark posed more questions than it answered. Does it mean a decision about Kwara and her people cannot be made without deferring to the Senate President, who, as a matter of fact before 2003 when he left defunct Societe Generale, a bank his family sacrificed for personal comfort for politics, had never stayed in the state for a week at a stretch?
“We admit that he is a tin god in some quarters but he should not continue to insult our collective intelligence as we are all not a group of shallow wusses. For him to have thought that appointment slots for the state must be allotted to him for onward distribution to his goons speaks volume of his disrespect. Our consolation is in the expression “Arrogance comes before fall”.
“President Muhammadu Buhari is enamoured of Kwara and the demonstration of his love for the state is there for everyone to see. If anything, and without a shadow of doubt, it is Saraki, who hates Kwara and her. He appropriates our common patrimony to himself, and with Governor Abdufattah Ahmed led-government, he put in place invited outsiders to partake in the pillage.
“In several instances where he was at liberty to influence the appointment of Kwarans, he passed them over on the altar of friendship. To mention but a few – state owned-companies, such as Harmony Holdings, Shonga Farms Limited and Kwara Small and Medium Enterprises – he went for non-indigenes Tope Daramola (Ogun); Bayo Sangibiyi (Oyo) and Segun Soewu (Ogun) – as the companies heads.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has described the defection of Senate President Bukola Saraki, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, and members of the House of Assembly as a cleansing that will give peace to the party.
“It is heart-warming that the enemies within were smoked out by the mass defection of former members”, the party said.
A statement by the caretaker committee chair, Bashir Bolarinwa, said: “Senator Bukola Saraki has caused more headaches for this party than even those in the opposition. He has always connived to subvert the Federal Government’s policies aimed at bringing succour to the people.
“Saraki started out in his senate presidency reign by ceding the party and its due leverage in the National Assembly to the opposition. He was the arrow head and foundation for indiscipline in the party. He invented disloyalty and promoted it to the highest level. He made mockery of everything that we stood for as a progressive party.
“This is one man that can be linked directly with the under development of Kwara State. His eight years in government was characterised with waste of public funds and betrayal of trust.
“The ignoble and dubious Shonga farm that has brought nothing to the Kwara market was conceived by him. The farm continues to sink public funds year in year out without any of its produce in the market.
“The Cargo terminal and Truck plaza he borrwed several billions of naira to build are not functional. The truck plaza remains invisible, while the cargo terminal provides free accommodation for reptiles. The state is suffocated with heavy debts that have no matching projects directed at improving the lives of an average Kwaran.
“One would have thought that when Saraki and Ahmed found themselves in the company of progressive Nigerians, they would be naturally spurred to do good but our state remains under-developed and the people are deliberately pauperised so that he can continue to lay hold on our treasury through the active connivance of the governor.”
The statement added that this is the best time for all progressive elements to work together and salvage the state.