Date: 2018-09-25

Abdulfatai Yahaya-Seriki, governorship aspirant of All Progressives Congress in Kwara State has said that the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, tried to lure him with an appointment to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party.

Yahaya-Seriki, one the 13 Kwara APC governorship aspirants told newsmen in Abuja that he rejected the offer and other entreaties by the Senate President.

Speaking on the insinuations in some quarters that he could be working for Saraki in the APC, Yahaya-Seriki said he was a self-made man and he had no godfather anywhere.

"Some people are insinuating and linking me with the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki. I can confidently say that I have no link to him and I cannot work with him.

"During the gale of defection to PDP, when the information reached Saraki that I was not joining the defecting camp, he sent the state Commissioner for Chieftaincy Affairs, from Kiama to invite me over to his house.

"I obliged and we met at his residence in Lake Chad that was the day he offered me an appointment as a Senior Special Assistant. I rejected the offer.

"I declined the offer because of our opposing ideologies, the genuine love I have for my people and my desire to salvage them from the political hegemony of Saraki.

"I do not believe in the rule of monarchy as we have it in Kwara. How can a state political structure be under the monarchical hegemony of only one man?"

The aspirant recalled he was a victim of leadership by imposition in Kwara when he wanted to contest for the House of Representatives seat in Kwara in 2015.

"One midnight, they called me to inform me that Saraki had endorsed one of his loyalists, who did not even purchase the nomination and expression of intent form and I was schemed out of the race

"Even with the way I was treated, I still remained loyal to the APC. I was the Coordinator of the Buhari/Osinbajo campaign group.

"I funded the group and mobilised people with my money for the victory of our party," he said.

(NAN)