Date: 2015-05-14

Sacked Kwara State Commissioners and governors’ aides have moved out from their offices and submitted the government’s property in their possession, National Pilot’s findings have revealed.

The state’s Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, had on Monday, through the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold, announced the dissolution of the state’s Executive Council via a statement.

The statement reads partly: ‘’His Excellency, Alhaji (Dr) Abdulfatah Ahmed, the Executive Governor of Kwara State, has approved the immediate dissolution of the State Executive Council. Also affected by the dissolution are Special Advisers, Senior Special Assistants, Special Assistants, Liaison Officers, and Youth Employment Coordinators.

‘’Similarly, all boards of Government-owned companies, commissions, parastatals, and organizations other than those of statutory status, are also dissolved.

‘’Meanwhile, all Honourable Commissioners are advised to handover government properties in their custody to their permanent secretaries while heads of other MDAs must handover to the most senior officers in their establishment’’.

Visits by our reporters to ministries of Education, Information, Finance, Commerce and Cooperatives; Sports, Industry and Solid Minerals; Environment; Justice among others on Wednesday, revealed that all the affected commissioners and other political office holders had evacuated their personal belongings from their various offices.

Also, activities at some of these ministries were at the low ebb, while some were totally deserted.

The popular state’s Secretariat on Lajorin Street, which houses some of the ministries and always beehive of activities was a ghost of itself when one of reporters visited around 2pm yesterday. 

Some of the senior staff, who did not want their names in print, told this medium that the affected office holders immediately vacated office when they were sacked on Monday.

One of the sources said: ‘’After April 11 governorship election in Kwara State, some of the commissioners whose ministries are not juicy had stopped coming to work. They just came when their attention was needed and after one to two hours they would jet out.

‘’This has been the practice in some of these ministries before the state’s exco was finally dissolved on Monday, and to the best of my knowledge, some of the affected commissioners and SAs, vacated office that day and handed over the government’s property in their possession to permanent secretaries of their various ministries’’.     

However, moves by some Kwara State politicians to be appointed or re-appointed in Ahmed’s second term cabinet had taken another dimension as the position seekers now stormed Saudi Arabia for the lesser hajj.

This, a source who spoke with this medium from holy land last night, hinted was targeted at having audience with the governor, who was initially reported to have perfected plans to travel to Mecca to pray for the success of his second term.

But the initial planned trip, according to an unconfirmed report, had been reportedly rescheduled by the governor having gotten the wind that some of the lobbying politicians were aware of the trip.   

It was not, however, clear last night whether the politicians will stay in the holy land till the governor embarks on the lesser hajj or retreat home for the continuation of their intense lobby.

Meanwhile, this medium gathered that due to the recent development, scheming and lobbying by appointment seekers, some of them had resorted to visiting party stakeholders for endorsement. Others had reportedly gone spiritual by patronising clerics and traditionalists.

 It was also gathered that throughout the 16 local governments the battle is between members of the just dissolved cabinet who are reportedly fighting to return to the cabinet as well as others who felt they also deserved appointments based on their contributions to the success of the party at the 2015 polls.

On the one hand,  those who defected to the party train shortly before the presidential election are also reportedly banking on the alleged promises made to them by the party leadership that they would be adequately taken care of and consider in the ‘scheme of things’.

According to a source, appointment seekers from Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state had turned the Ilorin’s home of one of the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) leader in the area who resides around Lower Niger River Basin to a mecca of sort.

 “Since the early hours of Monday (May 10, 2015), that the cabinet was dissolved, the house has been turned into a mecca of sort. Among the callers coming in day and night to seek the leader’s endorsement and blessing are those in the dissolved cabinet who want to return by all means as well as those seeking fresh appointment”, the source revealed.

Another top member of the party from Isin Local Government Area was said not to be leaving anything to chance, ostensibly to assuage for his long stay out of political patronage, a source closed to his family revealed.

When this medium visited Sheikh Alimi Mosque located inside the Emirs Palace Ilorin on Wednesday, group of people with some Islamic Clerics were seen offering supplication to seek Allah’s blessing for their boss (whose identity they didn’t divulge) to be made the Secretary to the State Government (SSG).

A middle-aged man, who identified himself as Ibrahim Akanbi and volunteered to speak with this medium on the condition that he wouldn’t be asked to name the person whom they were praying for said, “as Muslims, we believe, power resides with God and that is why we have converged on this historic mosque to make a case for our boss. We are specifically praying he is made the next Secretary to the State Government.