Voting for PDP is licence for perpetual looting – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed says voting for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is giving the party the licence to continue to loot the nation and its treasury.

The minister stated this at the Presidential rally of the All Progressives Party (APC) in Kwara which was held in Ilorin on Monday.

Our correspondent reports that the rally was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari who led other APC stalwarts including, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Abdullahi Adamu, the Party National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole and others.

Mohammed alleged that with election just a few days away, the PDP had started reaching out to different groups: Nigeria Union of Teachers, National Union of Road Transport Workers, particularly in Kwara.

“Don’t mind them. If they offer you money, take it. It is your money that they stole. But don’t vote for them,” he said.

The minister said Kwara state chapter of APC broke the jinx and “fell the Berlin wall of Kwara politics” when the party won the Ekiti/Irepodun/Isin/Oke Ero Federal Constituency bye-election on Nov. 17 2018.

He assured that the party would repeat the same feat in the forthcoming general election.

“It is time to retire those who have held Kwara state down and make our people and our state very poor.

“They have been deceiving the people. They have been blaming the Federal Government for their failures.

“When they can’t pay workers salary, they blame the federal government. When they can’t provide infrastructure, they blame the federal government.

“They forgot to tell the people that Mr President has graciously approved bailouts and Paris Club Refund for states, including Kwara.

“Ask them, where is the money? What did they do with it?’.

The minister berated the Senate President Dr Bukola Saeaki who is the PDP leader in the state for making available his personal money, N2.5 billion to pay workers as elections were approaching.

“Where do individuals pay state workers? Where did the money come from?

“It is your money that they have been keeping. They have brought out some of it because they are desperate.

“Ask them: After the election. Will the leader still be paying your salaries? Tell them, enough is enough. O to ge!,”.

Contrary to the campaign allegation by PDP that the federal government had not done anything in Kwara, the minister listed ongoing infrastructure projects of the administration in the state.

The projects included the rehabilitation of Ohan and Moro Bridges on Ilorin-Igbeti road, construction of Patigi-Kpada road and dualisation of Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa highway.

“Remember the Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa road has just been rehabilitated by the federal government.

“Instead of spending days travelling on that road, motorists now spend a few hours. With the dualisation that is now ongoing, things will get even better,” he said.

The minister also listed other projects to include the rehabilitation of Ilorin-Kabba-Obajana road, construction of Ajase-Ipo-Offa-Erin Ile-Osun state boundary and construction of Kaiama-KIshi road.

Others are the construction of Offa Bypass in Offa, design and construction of Koro-Nimbo-Shiagi Echi Wada road, dualisation of Michael Imoudu Ganmo/Afon junction road Ilorin and rehabilitation of Ilorin Igbetti-Kishi road.

Mohammed said over 3,000 homes in the state are benefiting from the Conditional Cash Transfer that gives N5,000 monthly to the most vulnerable in the society.

He said hundreds of market women in the state had benefited from the TraderMoni and MarketMoni programmes while the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme had seen the number of rice farmers in the state grow from 5,000 to 30,000.

The minister said that numerous state indigenes had been given appointments at the federal level, whether into boards of agencies or in other capacities.

The minister said that the people of the state were tired of the way and manner that a dynasty had cornered the resources of the state, and turned the state’s treasury to its personal piggy bank.

He assured that in the forthcoming election the people would use the ballot to declare their resolve that, “O to ge” meaning “Enough is Enough”.

Immediate past Governor of Osun state, Rauf Aregbesola who also addressed the mammoth crowd at the rally said time was up for the PDP in the state.

Aregbesola who delivered his campaign message in Yoruba songs said ‘PDP will go, surely PDP will be defeated, a party holding people to ransom and looting common treasury must be chased out of Kwara with vote,” he said.