A faction of the All Progressives Congress loyal to President Muhammadu Buhari in Kwara State has urged the national leadership of the party to expel Senate President Bukola Saraki.
The Chairman of the faction, Mr. Bashir Bolarinwa, on Friday called for Saraki’s expulsion from the party, accusing him of being behind the recent mass defection of senators and members of the House of Representatives from the APC to other parties, mainly the PDP.
He said, “As for me, he is no longer a member of the APC. He is just hiding behind one finger deceiving himself and thinking that he is deceiving Kwara people.
“We already know where he belongs. We know how he operates politically. We know very well that he is behind all that happened in the state and even nationally, including the defection of the federal lawmakers.
“What he has done is to look for aggrieved senators, even from other parts of the country. I know that the national leadership of the APC will not just ignore it. For us in Kwara, we saw it coming, so it did not come as a surprise.
“We know that the national leadership (of the APC) will do the needful. We are calling for his expulsion and that of all others who are with him, pretending to be APC members while their hearts are elsewhere. They should all be expelled immediately.”
However, the APC faction in the state loyal to Saraki, dismissed the Bolarinwa-led faction of the party and its call for the Senate President’s expulsion.
The Publicity Secretary of the faction, Sulyman Buhari, said there was no basis to expel Saraki from the APC, adding that the Senate President had not engaged in any anti-party activity.
He noted that being the Senate President, Saraki is required by his office to relate with all the members of the National Assembly, including those from other parties
Buhari said, “As far as I am concerned, I will not give much concern to the call. I do not know any other faction of the APC in Kwara State; we have one APC in Kwara and I’m its Publicity Secretary. I don’t think that I should give any statement by some aggrieved people in the state a response.“The call is baseless. Those who are calling for his expulsion have lost focus. They should rather think of better things to do. There is no basis for anybody to think of expelling Saraki and his loyalists. He is still the Senate President. There are people from other parties in the Senate and he should not be a sectional leader.”