Saliu Mustapha unveils ‘Rainbow Coalition’ in Kwara, vows to defeat Abdulrazaq in senate race

By Daily Hibiscus News

Saliu Mustapha, senator representing Kwara central, has unveiled the Otoge Progressives Rainbow Coalition in Kwara, vowing to defeat AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, governor of the state, in the Kwara central senate race.

During the unveiling of the coalition in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, on Wednesday, the senator also declared support for the second-term bid of President Bola Tinubu.

The senator had on Friday picked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nomination form to contest the Kwara central senate seat along with AbdulRazaq, the All Progressives Congress (APC) preferred candidate for the seat.

This came hours after he resigned from the APC following his failure to secure the party’s governorship ticket and a return to the senate.

Speaking during Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Mustapha said the rainbow coalition, established in Rivers state by Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has made inroads into Kwara.

He claimed the coalition is backed by former Senate President Bukola Saraki and comprises members of The Otoge Progressives (TOP) and a group known as G15, made up of governorship aspirants who contested the APC primary but failed to secure the party’s ticket.

He listed himself, Yahaya Seriki, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, Dele Belgore, Alhaji Muhideen, Oyelola Ashiru and Sadiq Umar as members of the group.

Mustapha declined to confirm whether the lawmakers in the G15 are still APC members but insisted that the Rainbow Coalition contributed to his decision to leave the party.

The lawmaker urged his supporters to come out en masse for the election and reject money politics.

“All our fathers and mothers who have spoken here today have made us understand that this coming election is not an exercise we should avoid but one in which we should come out en masse to disgrace money,” he said.

“If they bring money, collect it. It is your money. But vote your conscience to let them know that before they got to the Government House, we never heard of them in this town.

Mustapha, in an apparent reference to AbdulRazaq, challenged the governor to point to projects he had executed in the senatorial district before assuming office.

“Whatever they said they did, they did it only after they got into the position we elected them to,” he said.

“In fact, I will give you a test. Go and find out and point to one single thing they did for this town before they came to power.

“Even the little things that our brothers do, such as providing materials for summer lessons and exercise books, let them show us which of these things they did for the people.

“Let them also point to the boreholes and water supply projects they provided.”

Mustapha, however, said he had done more for the district as senator, adding that his contributions to the people predated his entry into government.

“But we will tell them that even before we came into government, we had done a lot for the people of this district,” he said.

“It was the good works we did that made the people confer on us the traditional title of Turaki of Ilorin.”