No going back on delivering Kwara to Buhari – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says there is no going back on delivering Kwara to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019.

The minister, in a statement he personally issued in Abuja on Monday, said that with the recent gale of defections, the APC members and supporters in Kwara were determined to strengthen the party.

He said the party would open its doors to hordes of those willing to join and reposition it ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The minister noted that with the defection of the APC members in the National Assembly, the “ wheat had been separated from the chaff.’’

Responding to a statement made by one Alhaji Jimoh Balogun at a press conference in Ilorin, Mohammed said his new leadership of APC in Kwara would not cede the state to double agents.

He said the challenge by Balogun to his membership of and contributions to the APC was inconsequential.

“The issue of my membership of the APC, as well as my contributions to the growth of the party in Kwara and indeed in Nigeria as a whole, is settled and not subject to any contestation.

“For those who may be engaging in mischief over this, the massive turnout of APC members and supporters to welcome me during my trip home this past weekend for a stakeholders’ consultative meeting should serve as ample confirmation.

“The truth is that those who are making this allegation are the ones who need to validate their membership of our great party since they have left no one in any doubt about their status as ‘double agents’.

“Alhaji Balogun is one of the three Kwara Senatorial Chairmen who recently called on their leader to take them out of the APC.

“As far as our members are concerned, these Janus-faced people are just waiting to crash the APC in Kwara before they escape to the other side,” he said.

The minister said his critics were rattled because of the decision not to allow them to actualise their nefarious plan.

He reiterated Sunday’s resolution of APC stakeholders in the state calling for the immediate dissolution of the party’s current executive committee and conduct of new congresses at all levels.

The minister said the stakeholders insist on their resolution that those who got various appointments under the pretext of being APC members should resign immediately or be sacked.