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Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has said the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has no political influence in his ward.
The duo, following political differences, has been at loggerheads in recent months, resulting in a division in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara.
Speaking during the inauguration of a new state secretariat in Ilorin sometime in July, the Information Minister said the party entered “one chance” by supporting the candidacy of Abdulrazaq.
Mohammed said he raised a major part of the funds for the 2019 elections in the state, which the APC won by a landslide.
Reacting to the minister’s comment, the Kwara governor, in an interview with THISDAY, said Mohammed did not fund his campaign and that he planned the campaign himself with donations from friends.
Abdulrasaq accused the minister of “hijacking” the donations made for his campaign in 2019, adding that Mohammed stayed in Abuja and did not know how the election went in Kwara.
He said, “Everything that was donated, Lai Mohammed did not declare to the party, or to me. Some were direct donations to me
“Some were sent to Kwara APC but there’s no governor, no minister. He was sitting there in Abuja, he did not know how we held the election.
“He did not know how we campaigned. He was in Abuja. Ask Minister Lai Mohammed, how many times he comes to Kwara? Our two ministers don’t come to Kwara. They are in Abuja. Both of them. Lai goes to Lagos. That’s his home.
“That’s where his son is a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly. That’s where his family is. He has no house here. He doesn’t come here. As our minister, he doesn’t come home. Same with Gbemi Saraki. She doesn’t come. So it’s like we don’t have a minister.
“That’s why the pressure is on the governor. In other states, you have ministers relieving that pressure. Everything coming to the state, they stay in Abuja and hijack it. They are running from one ministry to the other to try and hijack things from Abuja. In terms of resources, they just took everything.”
