TheCable

Members of the Kwara state house of assembly say Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, did not fund the All Progressives Congress (APC) campaigns during the 2019 elections in the state.

Mohammed had, on Saturday, said he raised a major part of the funds for the state’s 2019 elections, which the APC won by a landslide.

“I single-handedly, by the grace of God, with the support of friends, politicians and associates raised all the money for all the elections we had in Kwara during that period, starting from the by-election that brought in honourable Raheem Olawoye (Ajuloopin) as rep member,” he had said at the unveiling of a new state secretariat of the party.

“Nobody gave the party a dime for logistics apart from what I gave. I distributed 500 motorcycles and 200 vehicles and many of the beneficiaries are seated here today. I challenge them to explain to Nigerians and all of you what happened to the balance of the N70 million that Ajuloopin refused to give us from the N150 million that I facilitated to prosecute the elections.

“When it was time for the governorship election, we didn’t see him (the governor) and we could not wait. So, we financed the election with the money raised. They got there today and forgot those who worked hard to get them there, but rather selling lies and dummies.”

Speaking a media briefing on Sunday, the lawmakers described the information minister’s claim as an “odious lie”.

Yakubu Salihu-Danladi, speaker of the Kwara house of assembly, said the media briefing was jointly held on behalf of 21 out of the 24 members of the house.

Salihu-Danladi spoke through Raphael Olanrewaju, a member representing Oke-Ero constituency, who serves as the deputy speaker of the state house of assembly.

According to him, Mohammed did not support the APC house of assembly candidates at the time, during the campaigns and election.

“Our attention has been drawn to an odious lie recently told by the minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed, claiming that he supported and or financed the campaign and election of the 24 members into the Kwara state house of assembly in the last general election in 2019,” he said.

“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.

“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.”

The lawmakers said they only received financial support from Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the APC governorship candidate (presently Kwara governor), for the purpose of campaigning during the house of assembly election.

“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,” Salihu-Danladi said, on behalf of the lawmakers.

“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.”

He further dismissed the minister’s claim that he (Mohammed) solicited donations from friends and associates to fund the 2019 elections in Kwara.

“It is also laughable that Lai Mohammed could claim to have personally raised money to finance the 2019 general election in Kwara state.” he added.

“The question that would readily come to mind is: What is Lai’s contribution to his own ward, local government, district and Kwara in general to have earned him respect and reputation for people to trust him and donate money to him?”