The main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of Kwara state, is in war of words with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, government over alleged plans to smear Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and some government officials.The State Government had alleged a grand plot by some opposition politicians to launch a coordinated campaign of calumny against Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and some other top government officials.At a press briefing on Tuesday in Ilorin, the state capital, Special Adviser to the governor on Political Communication, Bashir Adigun, accused some opposition politicians of desperate attempts to smear the image of the governor using falsehoods of various kinds, including doctored documents, unverified claims, fake videos and other disinformation to mislead the public.He alleged that some opposition elements in the state, including the Peoples Democratic Party and its allies, planned to smear the governor and some other top government officials with falsehood in their desperate bid to return the state to backwardness and wanton diversion of public funds and resources for their private use,” Adigun said.“They plan to begin heavy use of some media platforms, including online media, to attack the government using all sorts of salacious tales that only exist in their imagination.“We are aware that some mischievous elements are trying to rehash the long dismissed tale of N300m LG funds purportedly missing,” he alleged.“The interesting thing is that the only source to whom they credit this phantom claim has since retracted the claim on a number of occasion.Adigun said “as a government that cared about accountability, the government set up a probe panel which thoroughly investigated the matter. Various persons and government departments made presentations to the panel and the finding was that there was nothing like anyone diverting any money from local government.“For the avoidance of doubt, the panel headed by retired Justice Mathew Adewara, said it found no evidence that any money was missing whatsoever. Before then, on July 20, 2020, the former commissioner who was alleged to have made the claim said no such thing ever happened.“Despite all these, some elements are bent on misleading the public in the name of politics.“It is important to state that funds accruing to LGAs are barely enough to pay salaries and other obligations. On many occasions, the state government has had to come through for the local government so that everyone will get 100% salary. It is therefore absurd for anyone to rehash any tale of any missing funds,” he added.“The characters behind the empty lies are also repeating the allegation about N750m contract inflation, even when the group that made the claim had since withdrawn the allegation. And as if to advertise their ignorance, they are also alleging that the government spent N6bn without the consent of the former Auditor General.“It is important to clarify that at no time did the former Auditor General make such a claim. The queries the former Auditor General raised with regards to some expenditures by a few MDAs have since been resolved and the former Auditor General has clarified same.
However, in its reaction to the allegations, the spokesman of the former Senate President, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Alhaji Abdulganiyu Abdulquadir, in Ilorin on Wednesday, asked the the state government to stop raising false alarm.
The statement described “as ingenious, unfounded and laughable the claim by the APC ruling government in the state, that some opposition politicians planned to launch coordinated campaign of calumny against Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.”
The statement dismissed the claim, describing it as another baseless attempt to divert the attention of Kwarans from the glaring failure of the governor.
The spokesman asked “the governor and his cohorts to stop raising false alarm and focus on how to provide effective governance to the people in the state.
” The claim by the Kwara state government that some opposition politicians are plotting to launch a coordinated smear campaign against Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, is not only ingenious and unfounded, but also laughable.”
The statement said ” this is an indication that the governor and his men, are threatened by the collective will of Kwarans to send them packing next year, given their abysmal performance and glaring failure in all aspects of governance.”
