Kwara APC may suspend Lai Mohammed

The crisis rocking the Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) may not abate soon, as the party plans to suspend the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, from the party.

Chairman of Kwara APC, Abdullahi Abubakar, told reporters in Abuja yesterday that the party might be forced to take punitive measures against the minister over alleged anti-party activities.

Abubakar spoke against the backdrop of the recent decision by the minister to unveil a parallel APC secretariat in GRA, Ilorin.

The minister, during the unveiling, had faulted the recent membership revalidation and registration of APC on the basis that it did not capture every member of the party.

Frowning upon utterances credited to the minister surrounding the sponsorship of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq for the 2019 poll, Abubakar faulted the claim that supporters of the party were denied the opportunity to participate in the registration and revalidation exercise.

He expressed support for the decision of the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led committee to extend the exercise by two weeks in Kwara, adding that the party was considering disciplinary measures against the minister over alleged breach of the party’s constitution.

The APC boss also confirmed that Mohammed had earlier revalidated his membership of the APC in the state.

He noted: “Like I said earlier, I still see the minister as a member of our party, because he has not formally told us that he is moving out of the party. I doubt if he will go. He is a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which the APC is running.”

When asked whether the minister will be suspended or expelled from the APC, the Kwara APC boss said: “There are guidelines. If the offence is commensurate to suspending him, or any other, definitely the rule of the party is going to apply because nobody is too big to be sanctioned. We want to have sanity in the party.”

He denied receiving donation from any minister or governor as campaign funds for the 2019 general elections in the state.