Kwara APC crisis: Caucus want Lai Mohammed removed as minister

The Elders Caucus of Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee to suspend the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, over alleged anti-party activities.

The caucus also demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari relieved Mohammed of his appointment as a minister.

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Addressing a press conference, yesterday, at the premises of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Ilorin, led by Sunday Fagbemi, the group which consisted of top party leaders and loyalists of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, described the minister as the brain behind the factionalisation of Kwara APC.

The state chapter of the party is enmeshed in crisis as the minister and the state governor are at daggers drawn over who controls the party structure in the state.

The minister had last weekend reportedly unveiled a factional APC secretariat in Ilorin, the state capital.

But Fagbemi said the action of the minister is unexpected of a leader of his status, adding that he is no longer fit to represent the interest of the party in the state.

“His continuing encouragement and support for the factionalisation of the party are divisive and disruptive to the APC. It is anti-party.

“We, therefore, call for the immediate suspension of Alhaji Lai Mohammed as a member of the APC in Kwara State for his actions. We also call for his removal as a minister from the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari for he is no longer fit to represent the interest of the state,” Fagbemi said.

Meanwhile, the faction loyal to Lai Mohammed has rejected the call for the suspension and removal of the minister, and instead accused the governor of anti-party activities.

At a press conference held at the party’s factional secretariat and addressed by the State Legal Adviser of the party’s caretaker committee, Barr Oladimeji Mustapha, they said the governor had exposed the party to public odium with his actions.

“We are put out of countenance by the governor’s display of incivility and the exposure of our party to public odium and disrepute by not exploring the party’s internal mechanism to address whatever issues in contention.

“We hereby advise Mall. Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq to desist from this anti-party, otherwise, the party may have no option than to apply the provisions of Article 21 of the APC constitution on him.”