Date: 2023-02-22

Says his efforts to enslave Kwara dead on arrival
• Says Abdulrazaq still cleaning his mess in gratuities, pension, others
• Party calls Saraki an unrepentant egoist who denies Kwarans' suffering under his vicegrip

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has said the state is now more progressive, prosperous and solid in various sectors of human living than it ever was under the vice-grip of Senator Bukola Saraki, recalling how the APC government continues to clean the mess Saraki and his boys left in Kwara.

In a statement reacting to the interview that Saraki granted on Monday night, the APC said Saraki in his habitual self-conceit has continued to deny the many evils perpetrated under his watch, such as wanton sale of public properties to cronies, non-payment of salaries, conversion of public assets to private use, and complete breakdown of basic amenities, including education and health care sectors under his watch.

"The interview was just a rehash of his annoying claims that Kwarans were foolish to have rejected him and his party in 2019. He is an unrepentant egoist. To Saraki, it was normal for the Colleges of Education to be shut down for over a year, it was great for the waterworks to collapse despite claims of having spent billions of naira. To Saraki, there was nothing wrong about owing salaries to workers; there was nothing wrong about keeping workers on the same grade level for many years, or paying them percentage salaries, even when he and his appendages were enjoying with public patrimony. Or is it not the same Saraki who awarded himself a humongous pension package and was earning it while workers suffered until he saw signals that the long arm of the law was going to catch up with him because he was also earning salaries from the Senate? What a man!" the party said.

"It is important to state that nothing was working again under his dynasty. Water was not running. His men had stolen UBEC money to the extent of the UBEC banning the state from accessing money again. All of those have been corrected today. Saraki and his boys left a collapsed primary healthcare sector, which has now been revived to the benefits of millions of Kwara.

"Saraki is the least qualified person to lecture any government about management of public finances. He was the first Governor in Kwara State to raise public debt by over 300%. What did the state gain from it? How have Kwarans benefitted from his Shonga scam? He spent 100% of Kwara money on Shoprite with nothing for the state to benefit. He met a debt profile of below N5bn in 2003 and left a debt profile of more than N25bn. It was under his dynasty that Kwara State was ever declared unbankable and insolvent in 2012 owing to their recklessness. Today, Kwara is the number 8th in fiscal health ratings in the country.

"Contrary to the Saraki era when civil servants had to be begging friends and relatives to give them food because of lack of payment of salaries, Kwara is now among the states that are not just up to date in 100% salary payments but have judiciously implemented the minimum wage with consequential adjustment.

"We also noted some of the habitual lies of Saraki in the said radio programme. He said, among other things, that nothing has been done on the campuses of KWASU. Saraki was talking to Kwara audience, who know the truth or otherwise of his claims. People of Ekiti Local Government and Baruten Local Government know how much of the work the present government has done to complete the Osi and Ilesha Baruba campuses of KWASU, among other projects. This administration is not like the Saraki administration that wickedly abandoned all the projects of his predecessor on account of petty and vindictive politics. This is why the people of the state do not ever trust Saraki, whose agenda is to recapture Kwara State and rule it like a fiefdom as we saw under his predecessor Abdulfatai Ahmed. Saraki should stop dreaming and face reality."