Date: 2021-07-17

Chairman of the Kwara State Caretaker Committee of the All Progressives Congress, Abdullahi Abubakar Samari, on Thursday, confirmed the suspension of 11 members of the party in the state for anti-party activities.

The suspension letter was signed by the national secretary of the caretaker/extraordinary planning committee of the party, Senator James Akpanudoehehe and addressed to the Kwara state caretaker committee chairman, Abdullahi Samari Abubakar.

In a phone chat with DAILY POST in Ilorin on Thursday, Samari, said there was no reason to insinuate that the suspended members of the party are loyalists of the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed."

He said " First and foremost, they are all APC members and they committed an offence which attracted sanctions from the party.

"3 Nobody should be above party rules and regulations, hence, the need to impose sanctions on any erring members of the party for sanity to prevail,” Samari declared.

According to him, "With due respect to the state governor, Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq, anyone that violates the party's constitution, will not go unsanctioned."

The eleven suspended members, said to belong to Lai Mohammed’s faction, were reportedly handed the suspension order for dragging the state chairman of the caretaker committee, Samari, to court following the removal of the former chairman, Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa.

The 11 suspended members include, Joseph Tsado, Bamidele Ogunbayo, Issa Fulani, Imam Abdulkadir, Morufu Olaniyi Yusuf, Salaudeen Lukman, Kerebu Fatai, Bola Ajani, Nurudeen Fasasi, Salman Sheu Babatunde and Abdullateef Ahmed Kolawole.

They allegedly opposed the removal of Bolarinwa as the former caretaker committee chairman, leading to a protracted crisis which has divided the party into two major factions.

Governor Abdulrazaq is leading one of the factions, while Lai Mohammed is the leader of another faction of the party in the state.

DAILY POST reports that the suspended members went to court to demand the removal of the approved chairman of the caretaker committee, Samari, contrary to the directive of the national leadership of June 25,2020, which resolved that no member of the party should institute any court action.