Kwara state gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Shuaib Abdulahi Yaman on Friday reacted to the comments made on Thursday by the Chairman of the State APC Campaign Council , Alhaji Fatahi Yahaya Seriki about the upcoming guber election in the state, submitting that the APC campaign Chief has grandiose dreams of his party.
Alhaji Wahab Oba, who is Yaman’s Special Adviser on Media and Strategy , asserted in a statement made available to Team@orientactualmags.com that the PDP guber candidate belonging to the same political party with Governor Abdulrazaq was never under consideration while noting that there was no basis whatsoever for a ‘political relationship’ with the governor.
‘The attention of the campaign office of the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara State has been drawn to the statement purportedly made by the colonized Director-General of the campaign council of the ruling All Progressive Congress, Amb. Yahaya Seriki while assuaging APC members during a parley with the press.
Seriki was reported to have told the press ‘not to be surprised by tomorrow morning if the PDP Guber Candidate , Alhaji Shuaib Yaman calls for a press conference and tells you that on behalf of PDP, he is withdrawing from the race to endorse Gov AbdulRazaq’ . The statement has not only exposed the fear of Yaman as the only real threat to AbdulRahman’s second term bid, but it has also uncovered the shallowness of the APC’s campaign council.
It is incredible that a baby politician like Yahaya Seriki , who was incapable of convincing any PDP stakeholder in his Zango ward to defect with him to the APC, with all the resources at the disposal of the ruling party, could ever imagine that an astute politician like Alh. Shuaibu Yaman would withdraw from the race to endorse a novice like AbdulRahman.
If Seriki suffers amnesia, it might be necessary to remind him that even though the declaration of Abdulrahman as winner of the APC 2019 primary election was contentious , Alh. Yaman, as a man who believes in God, but oblivious of AbdulRahman’s deceptive mien, took him across the entire Kwara North for endorsement thinking that the then-candidate was a honest, trustworthy and reliable politician who would fulfill his promises to the people.
Alh. Yaman left the APC with others of impeccable integrity because of AbdulRahman’s deceit and profligacy. Yaman left APC because AbdulRahman’s so-called legacy projects cannot account for 10% of the resources belonging to the state. Yaman decamped to the PDP because AbdulRahman has not accounted for more than N500b that had accrued to the state in less than four years. Yaman left the APC because the governor is running an exclusive government.
In the 55 years’ history of Kwara State, no governor has treated civil servants in the state with such a disdain and disgrace as AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. This is the same governor who not only sued the labour unions for legitimately demanding their rights, but also sacked innocent young people employed by the state far away from the election that brought him in as governor.
Kwarans now know that AbdulRahman is only waiting for February 2023 to formally sack the Kwara Hotel workers for asking for their unpaid salaries. Seriki must stop acting the ‘nice boy’, but advise his boss to reinstate the so-called Sunset teachers, promote qualified civil servants to vacant permanent secretary positions and stop playing kites with the future of career officials.
We implore Yahaya Seriki to tell his boss to speak with Kwarans about what he has done with the humongous resources that accrued to the state in less than four years of his uneventful administration. AbdulRahman must talk to Kwarans about what has happened to the unspent N17.9b he said he kept in the commercial bank and the N18.6b federal government grants to the state.
If elected as governor, Alh. Shuaibu Yaman will run an open, transparent, accountable and inclusive government that consults and dialogues with the people. A Yaman/Makanjuola administration will assemble a crack team of progressive-minded Kwarans that will ensure equitable distribution and allocation of our commonwealth, and bail our state out of the current doldrums.
The main focus of Alh. Shuaibu Yaman will be massive but sustainable wealth creation through agricultural revolution across the state. The civil servants, youths, women and artisans, among others, shall be the centerpieces of a Yaman/Makanjuola administration.
The statement credited to Yahaya Seriki has not only re-enacted the Yaman-phobia and nostalgia that had continued to permeate the rank and file of the APC, even as the possibility of an election loss dawns on the party. Never again, will Yaman support a governor who violates the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by refusing to conduct local government elections despite a subsisting Supreme Court ruling against his action. Never again would Yaman support a governor whose own community in Adeta suffers an acute shortage of potable water’ the statement said.
In separate statement, the state PDP Campaign Council has also said Alhaji Yahaya Seriki ‘is suffering from delusions of grandeur’ , submitting that the party’s candidate, Alhaji Shuaib Abdulahi Yaman remains the most popular among all the gubernatorial candidates.
The Campaign Council in a statement made available to Team@orientactualmags.com by its Director of Media, Mr Lawal Akanbi Sharafadeen, asked Alhaji Yahaya Seriki to accept the reality of an imminent election loss and prepare his party members for a new role and status as opposition members and stop being in denial.
‘We actually had a good laugh about the statements made by Alhaji Yahaya Seriki and we want to say this without fear of contradiction that inwardly he knows he is deceiving the governor and the APC members.
The governor’s approval rating has gone discouragingly low, he is very unpopular while majority of the APC members are unhappy and annoyed, and they still harbour deep-seated resentment against the party leaders and the governor.
So how will the governor win by a wide margin like the APC Chairman, Sunday Fagbemi had also said? Fagbemi, Seriki and others are either far away from reality or making self-deceiving claims.
Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdulahi is the most popular among the guber candidates and by the Grace of God , he will become the eight executive governor of Kwara state next year’ the statement said.
The Campaign Council also cautioned Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq against hate speeches warning that he may be made to face defamation charges after losing immunity.
‘Governor Abdulrazaq is desperate to get a second term and having seen that this is fast becoming a mirage , he has completely lost it.
Our leader , Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki was accused of taking two billion naira from the state allocations on a monthly basis and they said he will never allow anyone who did not serve under him as governor to emerge as guber candidate, Alhaji Shuaib Yaman is today the PDP guber candidate.
The governor has been making wild accusations and saying so many negative things about Dr Saraki, we have an audio evidence and a video evidence wherein Abdulrazaq called him ‘ogboju ole’ , this is unbecoming of the governor.
He is trying to fight dirty and it is not that we don’t have what we can use to expose his deceitful actions but we have chosen to show political maturity.
Rather than living in denial, Yahaya Seriki and others should caution the governor and urge him to tread cautiously’ the statement added- Team@orientactualmags.com
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