Eid attack: Gov Ahmed denies rift with Saraki

FROM LAYI OLANREWAJU, ILORIN

The Kwara State Governor, Al­haji Abdulfatah Ahmed has de­scribed as false, mali­cious and unfounded, the story published by an online news me­dium on Friday, 25th September, 2015 which claimed that Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki blamed him for the attack on dig­nitaries at the Ilorin Eid Prayer Ground last Thursday.

In a statement issued in Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications to Gover­nor Ahmed, Dr. Muyideen Femi Akorede, said that at no time did the Senate President accuse the state governor of leaving him vulnerable to attack by the miscreants at the Eid Prayer Ground in Ilorin.

It equally denied the claim that the governor blamed Dr. Saraki for the attack on dignitaries.

The statement described the report which also al­leged that Senator Saraki got N1billion out of the N4.3b bail-out loan re­ceived by the state govern­ment from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as pre­posterous, malicious and provocative, adding that the Senate President neither received any kobo out of the money which was fully used to pay the two-month salary arrears owed State Civil Servants in August, 2015 nor any other money from the state government.

It noted that the Senate President was fully preoc­cupied with the onerous task of law making and providing leadership at the National Assembly and as such has no time to either interfere with or control the state’s finances which are fully under the jurisdiction of the state government and its authorized officials.

Confirming that major­ity of state government workers, local government employees and teachers re­ceived their salaries a day before the Eid celebrations, the statement stressed that the Kwara state governor’s decision, like most Nige­rians, to observe the Eid prayers in Share, his home town rather than Ilorin, was driven by a desire to spend time with his people, rather than by security reports of a possible attack.

“As the state’s political leader who is well loved by the people, Dr Saraki does not need to prove his popularity or induce people to demonstrate their sup­port for him through ra­dio announcement as was insinuated by the report”, Akorede said. Meanwhile, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari has condemned the efforts by some people described as miscreants to disrupt the Eid prayers at the Ilorin Eid ground as an offence against God.

The Emir made this re­mark when he paid the yearly Eid Kabir visit to the governor at the Govern­ment House in Ilorin.

Gambari noted that the efforts 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, de­scribing the development as despicable and unfortu­nate.

The Emir advised par­ents to train their children not to taint the good im­age of Ilorin Emirate and Kwara State as a peace lov­ing and united entities.

Responding, Governor Ahmed said that despite the fact that the September fed­eral allocation had not been received, his administration had paid the state civil ser­vants and facilitated loan for local government coun­cils to offset their workers’ salaries.

The governor prom­ised that his administra­tion remained committed to completing all projects, while new ones would be embarked upon as soon as earnings improve, just as he reiterated that the resolve of his administration to boost internally generated rev­enue would not inflict addi­tional burden on the people of the State.

 

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