The Kwara State governor, Abdulraham Abdulrazaq and the former commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy title in the state and former senatorial aspirant for Kwara North Senatorial district, Aisha Pategi have ended their rift which lasted for almost four years. It all started when Pategi was the commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state. She was one of the key members of Abdulrazaq’s cabinet until she accused the state’s ministry of finance of diverting N300 million local government funds.
The allegation was denied by the ministry and she was moved to the ministry of special duties during a cabinet reshuffle as one of the measures to resolve the fraud allegation while investigation was going on. She had to resign her appointment because she wasn’t satisfied with the way the case was being handled. After her resignation, Pategi who was a member of the All Progressive Congress, APC publicly dared the governor in a tweet to publish the local governments’ financial accounts starting from 2019.
The APC Women Network for Buhari, Kwara North Zone had to come to her aid by defending her. They raised an alarm after a toxic propaganda and character assassination was targeted at denigrating the reputation of Pategi. The group warned the state governor to call the people concerned to order. The aggrieved commissioner had to dump the APC for that singular reason.
She called on the people of Kwara North constituency to disown any of their indigenes that voted for the APC in 2019. She described APC in the state as a fuji house of commotion because of its persistent crisis. Pategi even added that she tried to reach out to as many stakeholders in the APC then but not a single one cared.
Abdulrazaq, who was supposed to step into the crisis and resolve it, looked away while ignoring the commissioner. He only set up a panel to investigate the allegation but the result of their findings was not released. Despite all efforts by Pategi to reach out to him, he maintained his distance from the embattled commissioner.
The two were not in talking terms for a long time until recently after Pategi went ahead to express her willingness to support Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s administration and political career. It was gathered that her change of mind came about after some stakeholders whom she had accused of not showing concern towards her plight a few years ago in the APC mediated peace between them. The governor on the other hand was happy about the development and he has extended his support also Pageti revealing that there is no political ambition she would signify interest in the future that she would not have his support.
