Saraki lashes out at Tinubu saying Kwara people will never accept dictates from Lagos godfathers

SENATE president Senator Bukola Saraki has lashed out at All Progressives Congress (APC) leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu saying that the people of Kwara State cannot accept the ignominy of having their future dictated to them by godfathers in Lagos.

Speaking over the weekend in an audio clip which has since gone viral, Senator Saraki, who was addressing young Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in Kwara State, said they could never take instructions from any political leader in Lagos State. Speaking largely in Yoruba in the clip which lasted for 33 minutes, Senator Saraki pledged to protect Kwara from the grip of godfathers in Lagos.

Senator Saraki, who defected from the ruling APC to the opposition PDP a few months ago, said he benefited little from his membership of the ruling party when he was a member. Although Senator Saraki did not specifically mention the name of the Lagos-based APC leader, his words were punctured with anti-Tinubu rhetoric.

Lashing out at the APC, Senator Saraki said if he remained the only member of the PDP, he would ensure that he resisted the invasion of Kwara by Lagos godfathers, alleging that he was being persecuted, despite helping President Buhari win election. However, the leaked audio clip  drew the ire of Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (Serap), which requested that the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) investigate the claim that the senate president spent between N200m and N400m to influence the outcome of the 2015 elections for the APC.

In an  open letter to Inec chairman, Professor Mahmod Yakubu, Serap urged him to collaborate with other necessary agencies of government to investigate the veracity of the audio tape. Serap also urged Inec to investigate the sources of other cases of apparently unexplained campaign financing and contributions for the 2015 elections by politicians and supporters of the two main political parties, the APC and the PDP. 

Senator Saraki added: “If you don’t even want Bukola, bring someone from Kwara and empower him as I know you young people are sharp. Instead, they want you, they want us, to be going to Lagos to get instructions."