The defection of a member of the National Assembly, Senator Saliu Mustapha, from the All Progressives Congress to the People’s Democratic Party, has deepened the ruling party’s crisis in Kwara state ahead of 2027 elections, exposing deep governorship succession wounds. Sunday Aborisade reports.
The simmering crisis within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State boiled over last weekend, as Senator Saliu Mustapha, representing Kwara Central Senatorial District, formally resigned from the ruling party and defected to the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), dealing the APC its most damaging blow yet ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Mustapha’s exit, announced after weeks of speculation, was quickly followed by that of another prominent APC figure, Hon. Kolo Jiya of Patigi Local Government Area, who has also defected to the PDP and is reportedly eyeing the party’s senatorial ticket for Kwara North.
Their departure signals that months of internal reconciliation efforts by the APC have failed to heal the wounds inflicted by a bitterly contested governorship primary.
The defections did not emerge in a vacuum. They followed sustained protests by no fewer than 10 APC governorship aspirants who had accused the party leadership of railroading the process to impose the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Hon. Salihu Yahaya Danladi, as Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s anointed successor.
