Gbemi Saraki refutes defection report, says ‘I did not join PDP’
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
The report that Senator Gbemi Saraki, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, has joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is untrue, her media consultant, Moses Bello, has said in a statement issued in Abuja.
According to Bello, the social media story on a newsblog “Ilorin Info” reported that Senator Saraki had recently joined the Peoples Democratic Party unofficially in Kwara State.
But the statement cleared showed she neither joined the PDP nor in anyway supported its Kwara State Gubernatorial candidate, Yaman.
The statement further added that the Minister worked tirelessly to ensure what has now become success of Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s Presidential Candidate in the presidential election in Kwara State, penultimate Saturday.
She supported Tinubu to win, “despite a few disagreements with the actions of the APC led state government in aggressively deconstructing the late Oloye Sola Saraki’s legacies”, the statement added.
Senator Saraki stated categorically that she remained an APC chieftain both in Kwara State and in the country and that she had no intention of leaving the ‘victorious party.’
“If anything, I am even more committed to ensuring the success of the incoming Asiwaju/Shettima administration come May 29”, Saraki enthused.
Numerous groups in and outside Kwara State lauded the Minister for putting aside the unflattering attempt by the Razaq administration in decimating the Saraki family when it demolished parts of Ile arugbo, the ancestral home of the late patriarch of the Saraki dynasty.
The commendation of her by the groups was also for the Minister’s pursuance of the eventual victory of the APC against her brother, Senator Bukola Saraki’s Peoples Democratic Party in the general elections.
The DEFENDER reports that Senator Gbemi Saraki has had a chequered political career and remains one of the powerful forces in Kwara State politics as a grassroots mobiliser.
Also, she has pledged her continued allegiance to President Buhari’s administration as well as that of incoming Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima.
