Mustapha disowns viral 2022 letter as fake, says he never signed one-term Senate deal with AbdulRazaq

…says governor’s camp agreed to reserve Senate seat for AbdulRazaq family, leave 2027 governorship for him

Senator Saliu Mustapha has denied a 2022 letter circulating online in which he was purported to have pledged to serve only one term in the Senate, insisting that the document is fake and was never signed by him.

The denial comes after several independent verification also established that the circulating document is not authentic.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Mustapha dismissed the letter outright, saying several details on it, including the spelling of his name, showed that it was not the document he signed.

“That document is fake. That is not the document I signed. They misspelt my name. Everything about that looks fake,” Mustapha said.

The letter, dated May 21, 2022, was addressed to Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and purportedly contained Mustapha’s “covenant” to spend only one four-year term as senator if elected.

It also suggested that Mustapha pledged to follow the governor’s directives and assured him of his loyalty during and after his tenure.

But the Kwara Central senator said he never signed such an agreement with AbdulRazaq.

“I didn’t sign any agreement with Raman. Let him come and swear with the Quran,” Mustapha said.

He, however, acknowledged writing an original letter, but said the version now circulating online was different from what he signed.

According to him, the original letter referred to his plan to seek a higher political office after spending one term in the Senate, adding that his political interest at the time was the Kwara governorship.

“In the original letter I signed, I stated clearly that in my bid for going for a higher office, I’ll go to Senate for only a term. That is why I didn’t contest for Senate. It was governorship,” he said.

Mustapha also gave his account of discussions surrounding his political ambition, saying Dr Ghali approached him over concerns about his growing popularity and plans for the Kwara Central Senate seat.

He said he was told that the governor’s camp was aware of his interest in contesting the 2027 governorship election and that he agreed the Senate seat could go to a member of the AbdulRazaq family while he pursued the governorship.

“What happened was that it was Dr Ghali that came to meet me that they are threatened about my popularity and they want to reserve Senate seat for the AbdulRazaq family,” Mustapha said.

“We are aware you want to go for the governorship in 2027. I told them it is fine, since I’ll be going for the governor. Any of the AbdulRazaq’s family can go for Senate. It is as easy as that. We will support each other. They then said it is fine.”

Mustapha further alleged that the circulating letter was forged as part of an attempt to undermine him politically.

“In a bid to frustrate us, the governor went to forge this document,” he alleged.

The allegation of forgery is Mustapha’s claim. However, his outright denial of the circulating letter is consistent with The Informant247’s verification, which confirmed that the document being circulated as his signed 2022 letter is fake.