30BILLION LOAN: Kwara Speaker, House Members Receive Threat Text Messages Our Reporter The bitter battle between the Kwara State House of Assembly and the Kwara State Government assumed a dangerous dimension this week as faceless agents bombarded the mobile phone numbers of members of the Assembly with varying threat messages, E-kwara can authoritatively report. On the January 21, 2014, E-kwara had exclusively reported the messy underhand dealings in the build up to the proposal and approval of the loan acquisition. Whereas the legislators claimed that their opposition to the loan was purely on the merit of it, government agents on the other hand stated that the lawmakers’ real reasons were far from being altruistic. A very close aide to Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed secretly informed E-Kwara that the ultimate goal of the Kwara legislators was to blackmail the Governor into parting with a whopping 2Billion Naira, out of the total loan deal of 30 Billion Naira. But hardly had the dust on the report settled than a new twist, this time a dangerous one, was introduced into the tango between the two arms that were until recently, locked in an unholy alliance. On Sunday, 26th January 2014, a text message was allegedly received by a member of the Kwara Assembly threatening the life of the member if he continued to stand in the way of the seamless passage of the loan proposal. The affected member, a legislator from the Kwara North Senatorial district, whose identity our source declined to reveal, was so terrified by the threat message that he immediately sent a Save my Soul (SMS) message to the Directorate of State Security Service (DSS) in Ilorin. Our source also refused to avail us of the content of the text message, fearing that it could give her out being the only aide that has access to her boss’s phones. However, as at the time of filling this report, the security agents had not gotten back on its breakthrough or otherwise on the investigation of the phone number used by the assailant. Rasaq Atunwa: Received a life threatening text But as if that was not enough, on the following day, 27th January, 2014, another text message, reportedly from an entirely different mobile phone number, was received by no less a person than the Speaker of the House himself, Rt. (Hon) Abdulrasaq Atunwa. A close aide of the Speaker, who craved strict anonymity because he was not authorized to talk on the matter, informed E-kwara that the text message might have been received by the Speaker Monday evening. The controversial text message accused the Speaker of among others, blackmailing the Governor, unbridled arrogance and over- ambition. It specifically alleged that the continued opposition of the Speaker to the 30billion Naira loan was a deliberate plot aimed at frustrating the second term bid of Mr. Abdulfatai Ahmed. Lately, there have been speculations in the political circle that the acquisition of the loan, at the twilight of the administration of Mr. Ahmed, was to provide a lush fund to prosecute the Governor’s second term ambition in 2015. The speculations have been further heightened by the fact that the proposed capital projects for which the Government is seeking the loan are almost the same with the ones highlighted by the Governor’s predecessor and political leader, Dr. Bukola Saraki in a 17 billion Naira loan he also sought at the capital sometimes in 2009. which is yet to be fully redeemed. Among others, the Government plans to build roads, hospitals, re-embark on the Ilorin water reticulation project and build another phase of the state secretariat. These are almost replica of what Dr. Bukola Saraki allegedly utilized the controversial 17billion Naira loan for. Bukola Saraki: Suspected to have siphoned 17Billion Naira And to compound the matter, Mr. Fatia himself raised another 10billion Naira loan from the Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) for just about the same projects! Meanwhile, the most shocking of the allegations against Mr. Atunwa in the said text message, according to our insider source, was that the Speaker is allegedly involved in a secret love affair with the wife of the former Governor of the state, Mrs. Toyin Saraki. With this foundation, the sender then threatened to expose the messy details of the alleged lovebirds if he (Atunwa) did not back out of his opposition to the loan proposal. E-kwara cannot however independently verify this claim, as our source also declined to avail us of the raw draft of the text message. E-kwara recalls that another person who had been so alleged of infidelity in the past was Mr. Tope Saraki, a good looking and well- built cousin of Mr. Bukola Saraki, who also served as the Special Adviser to his uncle on Students and on MDGs matters at different times. Mr. Tope Saraki was then rumored to be involved in a secret amorous affair with Mrs. Saraki, an unsubstantiated allegation obviously aimed at creating a gulf between the two Saraki brothers. Tope and Toyin Saraki: Alleged to ha
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:17:39 +0000
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