A group, the Kwara Media Forum, says Gov. AbdulRasaq AbdulRahman of Kwara has donated N10 million to Ilorin Durban Foundation.
It said that speculation that the governor did not play any financial role in the recently held Ilorin Durbar festival was unfounded.
“Report that Gov. AbdulRahman did not contribute either in cash or kind to the event held in the ancient town last Monday went overdrive following his absence at the occasion which had in attendance an encouraging number of people from the town including dignitaries.
“The governor, who hails from the town, was conspicuous by his absence from the cultural horse riding procession just as he didn’t join other Muslim faithful at the Eid Praying Ground of the metropolis on Sallah day,” it said.
In a statement signed by the spokesman of Kwara Media Forum, Mr. Rotimi Sulyman, the group expressed concern over alleged veiled attack on Gov. AbdulRahman over the said incidents, saying the governor was deliberately being misconstrued by political jobbers and his adversaries with the view to malign his person and erode his electoral value.
“Our attention has caught falsehood spewed in some circles in the state, claiming Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq contributed no dime in the successful organisation of the recently held Durbar Festival by the Ilorin Emirate despite being an indigene of the town.
“This false rumour has a political undercurrent and is spread in bad faith so as to discredit the governor and vitiate the overwhelming support his government has been enjoying across the state.
“Characteristically, the governor is not fussed about the claim but it behoves on some of us who were privy to things that went on behind the scenes in relation to the event to set the record straight.
“Our group has it on good authority that the governor in his private capacity gave N10m to the committee saddled with organising the event. Besides, it is not in Gov. AbdulRahman’s DNA to sacrifice the welfare of the generality of the people of the state at the altar of ethno-religious politics, kleptomania and self-conceited few that were the stock-in-trade of the previous ruler with its serious consequences including grinding poverty and massive infrastructure deficit,” the statement reads.
Sulyman said Kwara State was better off under the current dispensation, adding infrastructure was getting a boost while civil servants were now paid promptly.
“It is early days, of course, but things are already looking up.
“Kwara may not be out of the woods, but there are positives to take from the incumbent governor’s altruistic leadership style.
“The state civil servants now get their salaries in whole before due date unlike the past government that was paying them in piecemeal at its convenience.
“The roads are being fixed by this administration without costing an arm and a leg.
“For sixteen years of ex-governors Bukola Saraki and Abdulfatah Ahmed at the helm, the governments could not provide the people potable water and were so overwhelmed and befuddled by the situation that they resorted to using tanker trucks to distribute water in selected areas.
“Today, the taps are running in several areas of the state,” he said.