Kwara State governor Abdulraman AbdulRazaq and opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state are at each other’s throat over the current security challenges in the state.
While the governor traced current insecurity in parts of the state to bloody 2018 Offa robbery, the PDP said equating Offa robbery to the current situation amounted to executive cluelessness, asking AbdulRazaq to face his responsibility as the governor.
ý The PDP in the state had last Monday accused AbdulRazaq of failing to confront the escalating banditry crisis in the state.
The comment came on the heels of last Sunday’s deadly attack in Oke-Ode, Ifelodun Local Government Area, which left several residents and vigilante members dead.
The opposition party, in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Olusegun Olusola Adewara, described the massacre as ‘a despicable and senseless act’ that had thrown the state into mourning, blaming the governor for what it called ‘monumental leadership failure.’
‘The gruesome videos of the casualties circulating online make it look like Kwara is now at war. Under AbdulRahman’s watch, terror is reigning, kidnappers are taking over rural villages, and nowhere is safe again.’
ýReacting to the remark at the weekend, Special Adviser to Governor AbdulRazaq on Media, Bashir Adigun, said: ‘The attention of Kwara State Government has been drawn to yet another uncouth, unintelligent, and desperate statement by the tattered opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), attempting to ‘trivialise the blood-soaked tragedy of the 2018 Offa robbery while trying to whitewash the dark legacy of 16 years of PDP misrule in Kwara.
‘Offa robbery was not just ‘a single bank robbery,’ as they arrogantly described it.
‘It was a national tragedy that claimed dozens of innocent lives, including mothers, fathers, students, children, and uniformed law enforcement officers, whose blood was spilled by criminals that had undeniable links with their political godfather.
ý’Kwarans have not forgotten that the RX Toyota mini-SUV used by the robbers bore the personalised plate number with Saraki’s name, and that the said vehicle was later hidden in a government ministry to evade justice.
ý’The PDP’s attempt to separate their bloody legacy from today’s security challenges is laughable.
‘This is the same party under which Kwara was turned into a theatre of fear, sorrow, cultism, and gangsterism-when so-called ‘Good Boys’ and political thugs unleashed terror on Ilorin residents and rural communities.’
For 16 years, he said, Kwara was a fiefdom under the Pharaoh-like grip of Saraki, until the people rose in a revolution in 2019 to reclaim their freedom.
ý’Governor AbdulRazaq has never shied away from acknowledging the nationwide challenge of banditry and insecurity. But Kwarans are wise enough to know that those who laid the foundation of bloodletting, impunity, and armed thuggery in this state cannot turn around today to pontificate about security.
ý’The PDP should cover its face in shame instead of attacking a Governor who, within six years, has rebuilt schools, upgraded hospitals, opened up rural roads, empowered women and youths, and given Kwarans a new lease of freedom and dignity.’
ýReacting, the Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office took a swipe at the Kwara Sate governor.
The head of the media team, Yusuph Olaniyonu, in a statement signed by him, said: ‘Our attention had been drawn to the video clip of the statement made by Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq during his belated visit to Oke Ode where bandits recently killed 21 innocent persons in another episode in the series of violent attacks that have become daily occurrences across the Kwara South and North Senatorial Districts.
‘In a reckless manner that put on display his usual clueless and weird way of responding to issues, Abdulrazaq equated the frequent attack by bandits ravaging two of the three senatorial districts in the state with the Offa robbery incident and made false, defamatory, and irresponsible insinuations about former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki concerning the sad event that happened seven years ago.
‘Our view is that it is either insensitivity or a lack of capacity to appreciate and process issues that will make a governor equate the widespread killing, kidnapping, and maiming of people across two of the three senatorial districts with a robbery incident.
‘The state of insecurity has forced residents of over 50 communities in the two senatorial districts to abandon their homesteads and relocate to Ilorin or leave the state entirely.’
Continuing, he said: ‘If Dr. Saraki called the attention of the state governor and the entire government to the widespread violence against the people and called for action from federal agencies, it amounted to dereliction of duty, lack of valid appreciation of the plight of the people, and total disregard for the safety of the constituents for the governor to resort to throwing tantrums and blackmail over an unrelated incident that has nothing to do with the former Senate President.
‘This Office believes Dr. Saraki has achieved his objective if his statement has led to national attention being paid to the killings in Kwara State.
‘Also, Dr. Saraki’s speech had eventually compelled the governor to pay a visit to Oke Ode, one of the many towns that have witnessed killings, kidnappings, and maiming of innocent people.
‘The handling of the security situation has proven Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to be an incompetent, insensitive, irresponsible, clueless, and unresponsive governor.
‘Using the words of the governor, ‘it is laughable’ that a state governor whose state experienced the killing of 21 people in just one community with many others being killed in other communities waited for five days before visiting the affected town while he had the time to junket to another state outside his zone to rejoice with another governor in faraway Imo State who was commissioning projects for the benefit of his people.’
Olaniyonu said ‘now that he has been compelled to visit Oke Ode to assess the situation on the ground, we would like to know when he will visit other local government areas in the state like Edu, Patigi, Isin, Irepodun, Oke Ero, and other towns in Ifelodun that have been witnessing incessant attacks by the bandits.
‘Again, using Abdulrazaq’s words, ‘it is also laughable’ that after six and a half years as governor, one could count on the fingertips how many times the Kwara State Governor called a security council meeting in the state.
‘Dr. Saraki’s advice is that the governor needs to expand the membership of the Security Council to include all first and second class traditional rulers so as to engage them in fighting the menace.
‘If he fails to tackle the crisis squarely, it will define his eight years in office and this will be a horrible legacy to bequeath to his successor.’
Olaniyonu further said the governor made ‘reckless insinuations against Dr. Saraki because the former Senate President called him out on his failure to do his job.
‘We wonder what he would do to the Governors of the Southwest states who were reported in yesterday’s edition of the Punch Newspaper to have ‘Tighten Borders Amid Banditry Surge in Kwara’.
‘We also expect Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to descend on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Akeem Owoade who has expressed concern over the recent killings in Oke Ode.
‘Dr. Saraki is not interested in bandying words with the Kwara State Governor. His call is meant to get the governor to show more empathy for the plight of the people and live up to his responsibility as the state’s chief security officer.
‘It is obvious that never in the history of Kwara State has the State of Harmony witnessed this level of insecurity which is also being fueled by the insensitivity of the government of the day.
‘Like Dr. Saraki stated in his speech in Ilorin on September 27, 2025, we challenge anybody who has a contrary claim that there was any time in the past that Kwara State had been this unsafe and confronted by the threat to lives and property at this level to come up with the evidence.’
Speaking on the Offa robbery case which the governor brought up in the video under reference, Olaniyonu said: ‘The Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office would like to put on record for the benefit of the members of the public that Dr. Saraki has nothing to do with the Offa robbery incident.
‘This is a fact known to the powers that be then. It was also confirmed by the legal machinery of the federal government despite their hostility to the person and office that Dr. Saraki occupied at the time.
‘In two separate reports dated 22nd June, 2018, and 23rd August, 2018 respectively, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation, in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed U. E. stated that there was no evidence directly or indirectly linking Dr. Saraki to the Offa robbery.
‘We know that the Kwara State Governor will not only find it difficult to comprehend the contents of such reports, but he will also not believe the fact that one of the planks of the campaign of calumny which propelled him to the Governor’s Office has since collapsed like a pack of cards.’
In the video clip under reference, Olaniyonu said, ‘Abdulrazaq gave himself out on his dubious move that we have known all the while.
‘We knew that he had induced some family members of victims of the Offa robbery to file a civil case in court against the state government, himself as governor, and join Dr. Saraki as a party as a way of further embarrassing the former Senate President.
‘The fact is not lost on us that the lawyer defending the aide of the governor, Michael Yinka Fafoluyi, in a libel case filed by Dr. Saraki is also the same lawyer who has been briefed to handle the case filed on behalf of the so-called selected families of Offa robbery victims.
‘We also called the attention of members of the public to the press conference by some members of the Offa community under the platform of ‘Offa Koya, Offa Kowosi’ where they distanced the community from the dirty politics of using an unfortunate robbery incident as a tool of blackmail and smear campaign.’
He emphasised that some members of the families of the victims of the Offa robbery represented by Alhaji Abdul Oseni Aditu Eniolohunopa, Hajia Mulikat Jimoh, and Mrs. Danjuma Comfort on August 17, 2025, spoke on a radio Programme at the TNT Radio Station, Offa, where they publicly dissociated themselves from the malicious case in court and warned politicians to ‘stop seeking to score cheap political points at the expense of their grief’.
‘We would like the governor to know that if this slanderous and ridiculous statement he made at Oke Ode is his way of diverting attention from his failure to live up to his responsibility as the chief security officer of our dear state, then he has failed.’
The Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office advised Abdulrazaq to stop politicising the unfortunate plight of the victims of the Offa robbery and their families.
‘His devious scheme and dirty politics have delayed getting justice and closure for the victims, their families, and the Offa community,’ he said.