Presidency Displeased With Governor Abdulrazak Over Ile Arugbo Demolition

Gbemi Saraki, Bukola Saraki, Gov. Abdulrahman Abdulrazak

Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, may have stirred the hornet’s nest if reactions within and outside Kwara State to the state government’s demolition of Ile Arugbo, the totem of the late strongman of Kwara Politics, Dr. Olusola Saraki, are anything to go by.

The demolition of the building that served as a home for the aged has been greeted with outrage from members and sympathisers of the Saraki political dynasty and other neutral individuals and groups who saw the move as a political vendetta against the dynasty.

This is in spite of the state government’s explanation that the acquisition of the land on which the said building was erected did not follow the proper channel.

In a furious reaction to the exercise, the Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki, berated Governor Abdulrazzaq for demolishing her father’s property, accusing the governor who assumed office on May 29 last year of rushing into settling perceived old generational family political scores.

“Revenge cannot be a policy thrust of governance,” she said in a statement that was choked full with venom.

Feelers from Abuja also indicate that the demolition exercise might have created a strain in the relationship between the Presidency and Governor Abdulrazak.

It was gathered that the power brokers in Abuja were angry that the governor went beyond the bounds in his avowed mission to checkmate Saraki’s hold on Kwara State.

When the news of the demolition exercise got to the Presidency, an influential source in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa was sighted saying: “Who does this boy listen to? This is really embarrassing.”

Thereafter, the Presidency waste no time in calling the governor to order, asking him to be more “temperate” in his actions.