The governor of Niger State, Mohammed Sanni Bello has said the leadership crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be resolved at the North Central caucus level.
Bello said this while briefing newsmen on Monday after an almost two hours meeting of stakeholders in Kwara APC which held at the APC national secretariat, Abuja.
At the meeting were the Kwara State governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, and Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and their supporters as well as the deposed state party chairman, Hon. Bashir Bolarinwa, while the Minister of State for Transport, Gbemisola Saraki, was conspicuously absent.
Last weekend the state chapter of the APC was in the news over the row created by the replacement of Hon. Bashir Bolarinwa with his deputy, Alhaji Samanri Abdullahi.
This was purportedly done by the National Caretaker Committee on the recommendation of the APC North Central caucus committee headed by the Niger governor.
The Monday meeting was said to be at the instance of the leadership of the National Caretaker/ Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee which was indicted of complicity in the dethronement of the ousted chairman.
Newsmen were not briefed after the meeting by both Alhaji Lai Mohammed and gov. Abdulrazaq kept sealed lips and refused to explain what transpired, rather leaving the briefing to the Niger State governor, who was chairman of the meeting.
The communication gap among stakeholders in Kwara State caused the crisis, Gov. Bello said, adding that the crisis was avoidable. He, however, promised that the issue will be resolved next week at the zonal level.
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Similarly, he promised fairness and justice in the outcome of next week’s meeting, while the interest of the party will be prioritized and that the decision would be acceptable to all interested parties.
His words: “we discussed issue surrounding APC in Kwara State and we had a brief submission from some of the stakeholders and it was resolved that the matter should be taken back to the zone for the zone to look at the issues surrounding the problem and report back to the National Caretaker Committee.
“So, I hope that by next week we should be able to resolve the matter at the zonal level and once that is done we can put our recommendation to the National Caretaker Committee for further action.
“But I can also say that the causes of this conflict are mostly due to communication gap which I hope we were able to resolve but whatever decision we will take we will make sure that there is no bias and whatever decision we take we will make sure that it is in the interest of our great party the APC.
“We have no intention to favor any person but to look critically at the situation and to advise the National Caretaker Committee on the necessary steps to take”.
Loyalists of Bolarinwa said he was removed on the complaint of the Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak as he claimed that he could not work with the former chairman.
According to them, the decision of the Caretaker Committee was said to be based on the recommendations of the North Central zone of the party, under the Chairmanship of Governor Sanni Bello that the Chairman should be removed and be made a Commissioner in the cabinet of Kwara State”.
But the loyalists of the governor under the umbrella of the Concerned Kwara APC Elders/Stakeholders led by Ambassador Nurudeen Mohammed supported the decision of the national replacement for Bolarinwa.
Bolarinwa was accused of running a divisive state executive council and never missed an opportunity to oppose the government elected on the platform of the party he purported to lead.
