You didn’t fund our campaigns, Kwara lawmakers tackle Lai

Members of the Kwara state house of assembly have described as baseless, the claim that Lai Mohammed, minister of information, funded their election.

Speaking while inaugurating the secretariat of a faction of the APC in Kwara, Mohammed had said the party regrets supporting AbdulRahman Abdulrazaq, governor of the state.

He also boasted of the role he played in the election of the lawmakers.

But at a press conference on Sunday, the Kwara lawmakers said AbdulRazaq was the one who supported them during their campaigns.

Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, speaker of the assembly, spoke on behalf of the members.

Danladi-Salihu, who spoke through the deputy speaker, Raphael Olanrewaju Adetiba, explained that Mohammed’s claim is farther from the truth.

“We ordinarily should have ignored the Minister and took it as another lie from Lai Mohammed but for the unsuspecting members of the public and posterity, the record needs to be set straight,” he said.

“Lai Mohammed did not give any support in any form to members of the ninth legislature during the campaign and election; if he did, he should name who and what he gave out.

“Lai Mohammed did not participate in any of our election campaigns and did not also contribute financially to it.

“Apart from the governorship candidate, the other support was the sum of N500,000 each that we received from the national headquarters of our party. Other than that, it was the governor who funded our expenses including logistics, souvenirs, posters and other campaign materials. Even so, at no time did the Governor go about telling anyone that he funded our campaign.

“It is also laughable that Lai Mohammed could claim to have personally raised money to finance the 2019 general elections in Kwara State.”

The lawmakers advised the minister not to drag them into any fuss he may be having with the Governor and leader of the part in the state.