Why APC Elders Caucus Wants Minister Lai Mohammed Removed

The Elders Caucus of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has petitioned the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee to remove Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, for alleged anti-party actions.

iexclusive News Nigeria reports that the caucus requested that President Muhammadu Buhari remove Mohammed from his ministerial position.

Addressing a news conference yesterday at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) headquarters in Ilorin, which was chaired by Sunday Fagbemi.

The gathering, which included senior party officials and supporters of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, characterized the minister as the architect of Kwara APC’s factionalization.

The party’s state chapter is embroiled in turmoil, with the minister and the governor at loggerheads over who controls the state’s party organization.

According to reports, the minister inaugurated a factional APC secretariat in Ilorin, the state capital, last weekend.

However, Fagbemi said that the minister’s behavior is uncharacteristic of a leader of his stature, adding that he is no longer qualified to represent the party’s interests in the state.

“His continued promotion and support for party factionalism are divisive and destructive to the APC. It is anti-political.

“As a result of his conduct, we demand that Alhaji Lai Mohammed be immediately suspended as a member of the APC in Kwara State. We also demand that he be removed as a minister from President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet, as he is no longer qualified to serve the state’s interests,” Fagbemi said.

Meanwhile, the group loyal to Lai Mohammed has resisted calls for the minister’s suspension and dismissal, accusing him instead of anti-party actions.

At a news conference conducted at the party’s factional secretariat and addressed by the party’s caretaker committee’s State Legal Adviser, Barr Oladimeji Mustapha, they said the governor’s actions had exposed the party to the public contempt.

“We are repulsed by the governor’s show of incivility and the exposing of our party to public contempt and disgrace as a result of our failure to explore the party’s internal process for resolving whatever problems are in dispute.

“We, therefore, urge Mall. Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq to abstain from this anti-party activity; otherwise, the party may be forced to enforce Article 21 of the APC constitution against him.”