By Mumini AbdulKareem
A new twist may have been added to the protracted leadership crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) last night following the surface of an online video of persons believed to be members of the AA Group who claimed the Governor has approved the formation of a parallel party executive members across the wards and local governments in the state.
AA Group is a faction of the APC with supporters of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq as members.
The decision to form a parallel executive is widely believed to be part of the Governor’s strategy to have firm control of the party’s executive ahead of the 2003 elections in the state.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq have been locked in deep leadership tussle over the control of the party structure after the 2019 election.
Kwara APC chairman, Bashiru Omolaja Bolarinwa, Minister of State for Transportation, Gbemisola Saraki, Prof Abdulraheem Oba and Iyiola Oyedepo are belongs to the Minister’s faction while Hon Iliasu Ibrahim, Sunday Fagbemi, Kunle Suleiman and the party’s state PRO, Alhaji Folaranmi Aro are staunch supporters of the Governor.
In the video which went viral on many social media platform last night, a member of the APC in Ifelodun, Engr Vincent Olayinka Adeyemi claimed the Governor is aware of group and ….
According to him “The Governor is aware of the group but he cannot openly declare support because of his plans ahead. We should all be patient and all what is happening at the party level national will get to the local government and ward and that is why we have been told to go and prepare.
“Once AA Support group have its members in ward, local government and state level of the party, what else do we want? As they have remove them from the affairs of the party at the top (referring to Oshiomhole and Tinubu faction), so will they be removed from the state.
“You can see that the caretaker committee appointed at the national level is already going from states to states. So I plead with you, there is no point making noise about it, we should go to our ward and local governments and form (parallel) executives without making any noise about it. We must not unveil our strategy before the time. Go to your ward and local government and appoint AA executives and wait for what will happen. The Governor’s enemies are waiting for him to fall but the only thing that can prevent that is that party and the governor understands that”, he added.
He said the assignment should be carried out with the greatest sense of responsibility adding that very soon, things will change.
The venue of the meeting was not clear last night but some of the comment suggested it was held in Kwara South and attended by over twenty persons.
But reaction to the issue last night in a response to a text message, APC’s PRO, Alhaji Folaranmi Aro denied that such development is ongoing in the party.
According to Aro “That is not true at all. The Governor has not made any political statement all these while”.
