By Rosheedah Abdulsalam
Yesterday’s visit of the PDP Kwara Central Senatorial Candidate and former Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi to Kwara APC stalwart Abdulfatahi Yahaya Seriki may have thrown the APC camp into panic.
Reports reaching us revealed that the camp of Salihu Mustapha, the APC Senatorial Candidate has gone into panic mode since photographs of the private visit appeared online Thursday afternoon.
Salihu Mustapha defeated Yahaya Seriki to emerge candidate in a bitterly contested and acrimonious primaries in June.
Since the primaries, Seriki, who is believed to have a strong street popularity, especially among the youths has been left disgruntled and have openly vowed not to work for Mustapha in the coming elections.
The PDP Senatorial Candidate’s visit to Seriki yesterday was therefore seen by analysts as a deft move by Omoluabi to either woo the dissatisfied APC strongman into his party or get him to support him for the election. Like Mustapha, Seriki is also from Ilorin East, which many believe will be a battle ground in the forthcoming elections.
Inside sources revealed that both the State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak and Mustapha reached out to Seriki on Thursday to inquire about the visit.
Details of the conversation with the Governor is not known, but we learnt that Seriki refused to talk to Soliu Mustapha. This would suggest that his real grouse is with the Senatorial Candidate and not the Governor. The Senatorial elections would come first.
A wave of defections have hit the rulling All Progressives Congress in recent time, with many of the party heavyweights leaving to join the most viable opposition PDP, or to bolster other opposition political parties. The loss of Yahaya Seriki will therefore leave even bigger hole in the rank of the already depleted rulling party.
Although both Omoluabi and Yahaya Seriki camps have refused to disclose details of their meeting, some analysts saw it as an offensive warfare, especially against Mustapha’s Camp, who has begun to realise the limits of money politics.
