APC to lose seat in Senate as Mustapha sets to join PDP in Kwara

By Stephen Oladele

The senator representing Kwara Central Senatorial District, Saliu Mustapha, is reportedly set to defect from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

His planned defection, it was learnt, was not unconnected with the unresolved crisis that ensued after the primary elections of the APC in Kwara State for the 2027 general election.

The senator is one of the aspirants who were aggrieved over the outcome of the governorship primary election of the APC in which the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Salihu Yakubu Danladi, was declared the winner.

Mustapha who is serving his first term in the Senate had opted to go for the governorship as the incumbent governor of the state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who is rounding off his second term of office had chosen to go to the Senate.

The governor is from the same senatorial district with Mustapha and he has won the APC’s ticket for the senatorial election of the district which means Mustapha could no longer recontest the Senatorial election on the platform of the APC.

Mustapha and other governorship aspirants who were aggrieved over the primary election are alleging that Governor Abdulrazaq did not allow free and fair primaries but  imposed Danladi on the party.

While the aggrieved aspirants who have become to be known as G15 reportedly demanded some concession for a compromise to settle the crisis the governor’s camp which is said to have taken the tickets for all the posts the party would be contesting next year was allegedly not inclined to yield to the demand.

This was said to have compelled Mustapha and some of his colleague aggrieved aspirants to resolve to look for another platform on which they could carry on with their political ambitions.

They were said to have finalised arrangement with the leader of the PDP in the state, Bukola Saraki, the former Senate President on joining the party for the 2027 elections.

It was learnt that the arrangement included that Mustapha would be supported for the PDP’s  ticket for the Kwara central Senatorial contest for him to seek election into the Senate for a second term.

If he joins the PDP and eventually clinched that party’s ticket for the senatorial election he would be contesting against Governor Abdulrazaq who intends to replace him in the Senate.