•Campaign committee chair absolves Abdulrazaq of blame over N1b campaign allegation
Kwara State All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker Committee Treasurer and Financial Secretary Mohammed Tajudeen yesterday joined the fray over accusations and counter-accusations concerning 2019 campaign funds rocking the party.
The treasurer and secretary said the Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed provided funds and logistics for the election campaign of all the APC House of Assembly candidates in the 2019 elections.
The lawmakers had on Sunday denied being supported financially in the 2019 elections by the minister, who was then party leader. They said the only individual, who could claim he offered the members massive support during the election was Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who was the APC governorship candidate at the time.
But, addressing reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, Tajudeen said the lawmakers in their statement confirmed the receipt of N500,000, but mischievously claimed that the money was from the national secretariat.
“As custodians of the party accounts, we want to restate that the said money was released to them by Alhaji Lai Mohammed and transferred to them through the party account.
“In a bid to satisfy their pay master and in desperation for second term tickets, they are in self-denial.
“They were informed about the source of the money and they individually sent acknowledgements to the minister to appreciate his kind gesture of support.
Also yesterday, APC chairmen from Irepodun/Oke-Ero/Isin/Ekiti Federal Constituency described AbdulRaheem Tunji Olawuyi’s allegation against Mohammed as a “pull-him-down tactic”.
A party chairman, who addressed reporters on behalf of others, Shittu Muideen, said the House of Representatives member’s “surreptitious moves have unearthed Ajuloopin’s odours of treachery and the good people of Kwara State have now caught a whiff of it”.
However, Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign committee in the 2019 general election, Mashood Mustapha, attributed the protracted crisis plaguing the party in the state to the refusal of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to ‘share’ the state money to some party members and politicians.
The APC chieftain, who told reporters in Ilorin, Kwara state capital, that some APC politicians lack knowledge in dynamism of politics, added that many of them did not know convention of the party.
“Immediately after the primaries that produced Governor Abdulrazaq as the party candidate in the 2019 general elections, many of the stakeholders in the tendencies that formed the APC found it difficult to accord the governor as the leader. Interestingly, that’s the convention of the party. The governor becomes the leader of the party. So, I urge our people, such as Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Senator Gbemi Saraki, Prof. Oba among others, to rally round the governor, support him rather than attacking him through opposition tactics,” he said.
