• Information Minister’s camp files court case to stop process
The two ministers from Kwara State Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Senator Gbemisola Saraki appear to have parted ways in the crisis engulfing the state chapter of the party following their disagreements over whether or not to take part in the process.
While Mrs Saraki has fully keyed into the process by nominating the secretary and a few members of the Senator John Danboi’s committee that is coordinating the registration in Kwara, Lai Mohammed is already using his godson and ousted party chairman Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa to frustrate the membership registration exercise.
“It is worthy of note that Senator Gbemisola has not been involved in the efforts to stampede the ongoing registration. She did not even participate in the whole Abuja protest. She feels it is a bad strategy. Instead, she is engaging the process in discreet consultation with her brother, Senator Bukola Saraki who has also asked his followers to silently register as members of APC,” according to a source within her camp.
“But Lai Mohammed, using his loyalists, has gone to court to stop the registration process. They filed a motion on notice in the Abuja division of the federal high court dated January 29,2021 with suit number CV/241/2021, M/842/2021.
The applicants are Joseph Ijado; Bamidele Ogunbayo; Issa Fulani; Imam AbdulKadir; and seven other loyalists of the Minister of Information.
The defendants are the APC; National Secretary of the National Caretaker Committee Senator John Akpanudoedehe; and State Caretaker Committee (Vice) Chairman Sanmari Abubakar.
“BOB wants the court to grant an order restraining the Caretaker/ExtraOrdinary Convention Planning Committee from further recognising or dealing Alhaji Abdullahi Samari as the new caretaker committee chairman in Kwara State. He also seeks an order stopping the APC from continuing with the ongoing registration exercise,” according to the source.
But sources at the national headquarters of the party said the Lai Mohammed camp may be pushing their luck as “what they are doing is a show of desperation because they know that the registration process has nothing to do with whoever that is the state caretaker chairman. It is a waste of energy and resources.”
A source in the national headquarters of APC said the party is disappointed at what “looks like a consistent attempt by the Lai Mohammed camp to stampede the party in the state using his stooge BOB. They are causing violence even when they claim to be pursuing a legal case.”
Meanwhile the Gbemisola Saraki’s camp is already mobilising her loyalists to take part fully in the exercise, amid speculations that she is working with her brother, former senate President, to hijack the process and install their own people as party executives.
“This is ahead of possible return of Senator Bukola Saraki to the APC because of signs of constant depletion in the ranks of the PDP. As we speak, some PDP lawmakers and governors are making overtures to join the ruling party at the centre,” a source said.
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