All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders, elders, leaders and office holders in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State on Sunday recognizes Bashir Bolarinwa as the chairman of the party.
They also declared their support for Governor AbdulRaman AbdulRazaq as the leader of the party.
This is part of the resolutions of the party leaders after their meeting in Ilorin.
OBSERVERS TIMES earlier reported that Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazak have split Kwara All Progressives Congress down the middle, with two factions now emerging in the party’s executive committee.
A faction loyal to the governor consist of some aggrieved members led by the state Deputy Chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Samari.
The group accused the state Chairman, Alhaji Bashir Bolarinwa, of financial recklessness.
Samari, at a press conference in Ilorin, accused Bolarinwa of running the party like a sole administrator alleging that the chairman is involved in shady deals contrary to the fundamental principles upon which the party was built
Meanwhile the meeting were Bolarinwa was recognize was attended by the ‘Otoge’ exponent, Alhaji LAK Jimoh, Alhaji Hassan Daodu, Alhaji Abdulrahman Iliyasu, the Majority Leader, House of Assembly, Abubakar Olawoyin and Deputy Whip Jimoh Yusuf.
Others in attendance included Water Resources Commissioner Hajia Arinola Lawal and Special Adviser, Political, Alhaji Saadu Salaudeen.
APC has insisted that Governor Abdulrazaq is behind the internal crisis rocking the party.
A faction of the party led by the Deputy Chairman, Abdullahi Samari, had exonerated the governor from the internal crisis rocking the party.
But in a statement at the weekend, Financial Secretary and Treasurer Mohammed Shola Tajudeen and Alhaji Dantala Yaro said some members of the party, who recently attended a parley with the state government on behalf of the leadership of the party, did not have the party’s consent to do so.
The statement said: “Our attention has been drawn to a parley held between the governor, represented by the secretary to the state government, members of the house of assembly and a group of people purported to be the leadership of the APC in Kwara State.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we affirm that the Chairman of the party in Kwara State is Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa. In line with the provisions of the party’s constitution, the deputy chairman can only represent the chairman at any official function at the behest of the chairman. The claim that the leadership of the party attended the parley is spurious and unfounded, as the group of people who supposedly attended the occasion did not represent the leadership of the party and did not have the instruction of the chairman to do so.
‘’The continued hobnobbing with these group of people by the governor and his appointees to the neglect of the chairman has given an indication that not only is the governor behind the crisis in the party; he is also the one fuelling it.
“We, the treasurer and financial secretary of the party, are the custodians of the party’s account and therefore know the true position of the account.
“Any accusation of financial wrongdoing against the chairman is merely a figment of their imagination. The chairman is of an impeccable character.”
The statement also accused some members of the executive, who claimed to have disagreement with the chairman, of not raising it at any of their executive meetings before they absconded.
“Their claim that the crisis is internal is untrue to the extent that they are the protagonists, who are internally motivated from the day they gave themselves up for the divisive politics and manipulation of the governor at a price.
“The intention of the group is clear. They pitched their tent where their bread would be best buttered. In the process, they are destroying the house they helped to build without any thought of the place of posterity as the best judge of all our actions.
“The aloofness and silence of the governor to their destabilising activities lend credence to his support for them,” the statement said.