Few hours after Senate President, Bukola Saraki announced his defection to the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), his younger sister, Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki has said she remains loyal to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
The former senator also declared her unwavering support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection in 2019.
In a message she posted on Facebook on Tuesday few hours after her brother defected, Gbemisola, who is the Chairman, Governing Council of Federal University of Otuoke, Bayelsa state, said she would soon galvanize all her supporters and associates to begin a re-election campaign for Buhari.
The message read in full: “I maintain my unwavering support for President Muhammadu Buhari, now and for his re-election in 2019, and for the success of our party, the APC, in Kwara State and across the federation.
“All members of my political organisations including GRS Movement (GRSM); GRS Foundation (GRSF); GRS Friends on Facebook (GRSFOF); Paramount Women Forum (PWF) and GRS Grassroots Youth Movement (GRS-GYM) will begin to implement the first phase of our “Get-Out-The-Vote for PMB and APC.
“Politics is a public service to the people and we ought to conduct it with dignity, peace and love for our fellow citizens.
May Allah grant us direction, guidance and restraint in our utterances and conduct.”
The rivalry between the siblings can be traced back to 2011, when Gbemisola, who had been a member of the House of Representatives (from 1999 to 2003 under the defunct All Peoples Party) and two-term senator (from 2003 to 2011 under the PDP), wanted to succeed her brother, who was then outgoing governor of their native Kwara State.
She got the backing of their late father, Olusola Saraki, but her brother kicked against the idea arguing that it was not morally correct for the position to be rotated between siblings. He then backed the incumbent governor of the state, Abdulfatah Ahmed.
Having lost control of the PDP in the state to his son, their father, popularly called Baba Oloye, left the party and formed the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) under whose platform Gbemisola contested but lost to Ahmed.
Saraki was then also elected senator to represent Kwara Central Senatorial District.