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Gov Ahmed Denies Rift With Saraki, As Emir Chides Miscreants

By Abiodun Fagbemi, Ilorin
27 September 2015   |   11:46 am
Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has denied insinuations in certain quarters that he was at loggerheads with President of Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki over the unruly behavior of miscreants at the Ilorin Eid Prayer Ground, last Thursday. 
Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State

Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State

Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has denied insinuations in certain quarters that he was at loggerheads with President of Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki over the unruly behavior of miscreants at the Ilorin Eid Prayer Ground, last Thursday.

Also, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, says the disruption of the eid prayers by miscreants was condemnable stressing that the actions of the malefactors amounted to desecration of the sanctity of the worship place.

In a statement, senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Communications, Dr. Muideen Akorede, disclosed that at no time did Saraki accuse the governor of opening him to attacks by the miscreants at the prayer ground.

Faulting the report in an online news medium, which claimed that Senator Saraki collected N1billion out of the N4.3b bail-out fund meant for the state, Akorede said it was “preposterous, malicious and provocative”.

The Senate President neither received any kobo out of the money which was fully used to pay the two-months salary arrears owed State Civil Servants in August, 2015 nor any other money from the state government,” the statement added.

He noted that Saraki being fully preoccupied with the onerous task of law-making and providing leadership at the National Assembly, has no time to either interfere with or control the state’s finances which he said was fully under the jurisdiction of the state government.

The Special Assistant explained that Governor Ahmed’s decision to observe the Eid prayers in his hometown rather than Ilorin, was to spend time with the people and not based on any security report of a possible attack.

While stressing that Saraki’s presence at Ilorin Eid Ground on Sallah day was not in defiance of any security reports or publicity stunt as was reported, the statement noted that as a political loved by the people, Dr Saraki does not need to prove his popularity or induce people to show their support for him.

Truly and convincingly, the report could only have been stirred up by disgruntled elements, threatened by the peace and harmony in the state with the sole aim of creating disaffection between the state government and the good people of the state”, Akorede added.

Speaking when he paid the yearly Eid el Kabir visit to the Governor, the Emir maintained that the action of the unruly youth at the Ilorin Moslem Central Praying Ground was an offence against God.

The activities of the miscreants to defile the sanctity of the place of worship and deny Muslims their right of worship are condemnable and a possible invitation of the wrath of Allah whose abode the miscreants invaded,” the Emir added even as he described the development as despicable and unfortunate.

Governor Ahmed, in his response, noted that in spite of the fact that the September federal allocation had not been received his administration has paid the state civil servants and facilitated loan for local government councils to offset local government workers’ salaries.

The governor assured that his administration would complete all ongoing projects while new ones would be embarked upon as soon as the state’s finances improved stressing the determination of his administration to boost internally generated revenue without inflicting extra burden on the people.

3 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    I feel Saraki with those grievous allegations of stealing and corruption is the one that had gone to desecrate the praying ground. Just as the Muslim faithfuls go to mecca to stone the devil, I feel it is in order for the the aggrieved people to have thrown pure water sachets on Saraki. I feel we should call a spade a spade, not an agricultural implement. When Saraki was accused of corruption, the first thing he did was to seek a court injunction to stop the trial against him, as a true practicing Muslim, he should have humbly gone to the court to clear his name. God knows those who are worshiping him.

  • Author’s gravatar

    The masses of Ilorin stoned Saraki at the Eid grounds and was ready to do Sharia on him for stealing their money, The traditional leaders – who by their title, should be chief implementer of Sharia have been led not to understand the issues and are pronouncing wrong judgements. The traditional rulers should seek proper understanding on what Saraki by his own-hands have created for himself.

    I believe the traditional leaders in Kwara State fear God, as they’d have to give account of their tenure, so they may need someone to interprete to them what Saraki by his own admission is being asked to clarify. He wrote himself some assets that he had, which at the time he wrote about it, he did not have nor it was not possible to ascertain how he could have had it in the first place. Is it political persecution? well they should wait for the mother of all “political persecutions” before God on the day of judgement – because account would be rendered, for sure – every details…even to the horned sheep who gored the horn-less sheep..judgement will be passed by God and then both of them would be asked to be dust. However for us in this world – we have to live and ensure that individuals don’t convert all the people’s commonwealth into their pocket – what we learnt from Saraki’s own submission about himself at the trial is as follows:

    1 – That Saraki is a rice farmer/merchant, and a very wealthy one at that to the point where he made a profit of about half-a-billion naira in 2003 that he bought a landed property with in 2006.

    2 – That Saraki is clairvoyant. To the PDP apologist, a witch. Hence the term witch hunting i svery appropriate. Why because he declared a property in 2003 that he was sure he bought already, even as the actual purchase was in 2006 from the federal government (N100m less than how much he declared in 2003) using his proceeds from rice farming.

    3 – That Saraki’s witchcraft – taking liberty with PDP charge and his charge of witch hunting – has no time for declaring other properties he clearly owns in Ikoyi and Abuja.

    4 – That the endless and fruitless pursuit of white collar criminals due to using interlocutory injunction to frustrate the main charges was sunset by former president Jonathan – as a parting gift to his PDPlutocratic traducers, in March 2015 -..as reported in premium times “”On jurisdiction, the prosecution counsel argued that according to section 2 of the Administration of Justice Act, 2015, the matter could be heard alongside any preliminary objection regarding the tribunal’s jurisdiction.
    The new law was signed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in March 2015, as part of a major reform of Nigeria’s criminal justice system.”

    In conclusion, since we are not running a country of witches and wizards, we normal people based on our law would definitely seek to convert Saraki to one of us. We support CCB in saving Saraki from the world of witches for his own sake, that of his family, for Kwara State and all for all of us – for he is such a jolly good fellow! …and other witches, currently living in alternative paradise would be hunted and converted to live with us as well.

  • Author’s gravatar

    saraki is the man for senate president