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  • PDP planning to attack our members in Kwara, APC alleges

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State to unleash violence on its members before, during and after the presidential campaign rally on February 4 in the state capital.

    In a statement yesterday in Abuja, the nation’s capital, the party’s spokesman Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu saaid the PDP in Kwara State should know that the forthcoming elections in the state would not be won through the use of guns and thugs but through the thumbprints of the people.

    The statement reads: “The attention of the APC has been drawn to a sinister plan by the PDP in Kwara State to unleash violence on our teeming members and supporters before, during and after our party’s presidential campaign rally slated to hold in Ilorin on February 4.

    “Credible intelligence available to us also indicates that the sinking PDP is planning to orchestrate spurious charges against some of our members before some compromised courts in the state. In addition, we have it on good authority that meetings are being held with thugs, where decisions were taken to create chaos in the state any moment from now.

    “The orchestrated violence is aimed at instilling fear in the minds of our members and supporters from coming out en masse to honour President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders of our party at the February 4 rally.

    “While we acknowledge the fact that the PDP is scared stiff of our party’s growing popularity among the good people of Kwara State and the impending doom that awaits it at the coming polls, we call on the leaders of PDP in Kwara State to rein in their hired thugs in the interest of peace and the people of the state.

    “For the purpose of emphasis, we would like to reiterate that the coming elections in the state would not be determined by guns, clubs and cudgels, but by the thumbprints of Kwarans, who have resolved to change the political narrative of the state from decadence and underdevelopment, as nurtured and fostered by the soon-to-expire Senator Bukola Saraki political dynasty, to one that promotes individual dignity and prosperity for all, which our party and its governorship candidate, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak represents.

    “We call on our members, supporters and, indeed, all good people of the state to go about their lawful duties and not be scared of welcoming our dear President on February 4, as security agencies have been put on alert to forestall any breakdown of law and order and molestation of people before, during and after the Presidential campaign rally.

    “We would wish to remind the PDP once again that no amount of scaremongering and dirty tactics it aims to deploy would stop its massive shell lacking at the polls. The obvious desire of Kwarans to change the political status quo in the state for the good of all and not for the benefit of a few retrogressive elements is now a movement aptly christened O To Ge (Enough is Enough), which is total and irreversible.

    “Finally, we urge APC members and supporters to keep the positive spirit that has characterised their conduct in this electioneering period alive, as the time for the rebirth of our dear state is at hand.”

     

     

  • Water for Kwara communities

    Accord in Kwara State led by its governorship candidate, Prince Ayorinde Adedoyin, has provided water for communities in fourteen local government areas. People in these communities have endured hardship and suffered tirelessly from water borne diseases due of lack of potable water.

    The state chairman of Accord, Chief Jaiyeola Omotoso, noted that his party was providing water to the communities by drilling boreholes and repairing damaged boreholes to bring succour to the people.

    Omotoso said: “The sad reality is that our people across the state are subjected to life of misery because of the wickedness of those who pretend to serve them. There is no running public water in any house in the whole of Kwara not even in Ilorin, the state capital.

    “Our state is plagued by worst kind of leadership possible in Nigeria. Our candidate for the position of the governorship, Prince Ayorinde Adedoyin is doing this to alleviate their suffering to our people and save them from water borne diseases.”

    Communities that have benefitted include Onila, Bolorunduro, Agbamu Il Ajase, Rore, Arandun, Agbamu, Esie, Iludun-oro , Omido, Eggi OyoPo, Buhari, Okeya, Igbaja, Oro, Ago Panu, Okerimi, Eyeba, Egudu, Ijan, Iwo, Omu-Aran, Odo-Owa, Ipetu and Eleyin, all in Irepodun Local Government.

    Other locations include Kulende, Ita goma, Sango, Gaa Akanbi, Meduku, Ori Apata and Balogun Fulani ward 1 in Ilorin South Local Government.

    The intervention also reached Isin, Ilorin Central and Asa.

    One of the beneficiaries at Kulende, Mrs. Serifat Ahmed, expressed her gratitude for the restoration of water in the area.

    She said: “We don’t have water to use here to drink or for prayers because the borehole we have here is not working again. Government abandoned it and nobody came for repairs until this party people came to repair it for us so we can have water to use. Everybody knows that water is very important for human beings. We want to beg our government to make water available for the people. Also we want electricity. Many of us depend on electricity to do our small business. I want to thank the man who did the water for us, Prince Ayorinde Adedoyin. They said he wants to be governor. That is the kind of man the people need. Somebody who will have mercy on poor people.”

    Abayomi Adigun of Onila District in Ajase Ipo said the restoration of the borehole would bring relief to the people.

    “You need to see how people suffer to fetch water. Many who can afford pay money to Mallam and wheelbarrow people to help them get water for use. We are happy for this repair and this is what government should have done. Our government needs to have maintenance culture. It is very sad how simple things are left to become bad because of corruption.”

    Adedoyin said he is in the race for the leadership of the state to liberate Kwara State.

    “Our people should never be this poor as to live in squalid conditions they have been subjected to. We have very selfish political elite in this state. Nobody is thinking about the future of the state. Our women, children and young people need help. There is virtually no industry that is working in Kwara again yet all our governments since 1999 are concerned about is how to share the resources among a tiny group of people.

    “We must change direction. Our people must be ready to vote against poverty. Look at the over 100 communities we have provided water for, some of the boreholes we repaired require as little as N50,000 to fix yet, they have been abandoned for years. Do you know what three mechanised boreholes per 193 wards can do in solving the water problem?

    “This is the reason I am running to be governor. To give new life to our people, to rebuild the economy of the state and too create opportunities for our people to better their lives, our people deserve better.’’

     

  • Buhari campaign train hits Kwara Feb 4

    The campaign train of President Muhammadu Buhari will berth in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital next month.
    The event slated for February 4th this year is part of President Buhari’s ongoing reelection campaign across the country,

    “We are pleased to announce that Mr President will arrive Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on 4 February in furtherance of his energetic reelection campaigns. The president will be accompanied by several party bigwigs, including the National Chairman, governors and ministers, among other officials,” Kwara state All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship and the state coordinator of the Presidential Campaign Council, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdurazaq has said in the statement.

    Read Also: Buhari campaign train arrives Maiduguri

    He added that “like you all did during the recent launch of the TraderMoni by the Vice President, we are again calling on all Kwarans of good conscience to come out in millions to welcome Mr President to the state in appreciation of his numerous of gestures to the people of our state. These include roads, irrigation projects and several appointments.“

  • Saraki’s political model killing Kwara, says Abdulrazaq

    THE Kwara State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, has said the current political model in the state stifles development and impoverishes the people.

    Abdulrazaq spoke yesterday in Lagos at a media briefing cum reception in his honour.

    Dignitaries at the event include House of Representatives member Tunji Olawuyi, Muhammad Dele Belgore (SAN), Kunle Suleiman, Senator Khairat Gwadabe, former Information Commissioner Raheem Adedoyin, former House of Assembly member Saheed Popoola, ace musicians Wasiu Sodiq, Ibrahim Labaeka, top politician Musibau Eshinrogunjo and popular actor Saheed Balogun.

    The APC candidate said the current political model controlled by Senate President Bukoka Saraki had impoverished the people.

    He said: “It has no answer to the challenges faced by our people. Nothing is happening anywhere in terms of development.”

    Abdulrazaq challenged the Saraki dynasty to showcase what it achieved in the last 16 years in its campaign rather than the current intimidation, name-calling and the doling out of money to the electorate.

    The APC flagbearer, who addressed the gathering in Yoruba, said the authorities in Kwara were using state machineries to intimidate the APC and prevent it from campaigning.

    He said: “Those who have been there in the last 16 years did not do anything; we have not seen what they have done. As a result, they have nothing to campaign with. That is why they are preventing us from campaigning too.

    “They are arming our youths, who are destroying our billboards and attacking us everywhere we go. They say they have banned campaigns in Kwara State. But we would not be intimidated. As the Yoruba say, O To Ge! (enough is enough). We will continue to campaign.”

    Abdulrazaq promised that, if voted to power, the APC has programmes that would create jobs for the teeming youth.

    The APC candidate said he is from a private sector background and that he would not wait for federal allocations to implement his programmes but would work towards shoring up the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR), which currently stands at N2 billion monthly.

    He said Lagos State, which has an IGR of N34 billion monthly, does not depend on federal allocations to implement its budget.

    Abdulrazaq said the Kwara APC adopted O To Ge! or enough is enough, as its campaign slogan because it believes it is high time the state turned a new leave in education, health, infrastructure, enterprise, among other vital sectors.

    He said there was a cordial relationship between him and other former aspirants in the party’s primary because everyone recognised the fact that only one person would win a contest.

    The APC candidate noted that the presence of one of the contestants, Mr. Dele Belgore, at the reception attested to the fact that he carried them along in his campaign.

    The event was organised by Kwarans in Lagos, an ad hoc amalgam body of all indigenes of the state in Lagos and its environs.

    It was attended by top businessmen and women, musicians, academicians, politicians and artisans from the state.

    Belgore urged all APC supporters to mobilise their friends, families and communities to vote for President Muhammadu Buhari, Abdulrazaq and other APC candidates.

  • 2019: Kwara APC youths accuses Saraki of intimidating traditional rulers

    All Progressives Congress (APC) youth, under the aegis of Kwara North All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF) at the weekend accused the state government and Senate President and leader of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, Bukola Saraki of using strong arm tactics to coerce traditional rulers in the state to vote for PDP in this year’s general elections.

    Hitherto, people of Kwara north extraction had vowed not to pitch
    their political tent with the Bukola Saraki-led government in the
    state in the forthcoming elections.

    Kwara north comprises Baruten, Edu, Patigi, Kaiama and Moro local
    government areas of the state.

    APYF specifically alleged that PDP and its leader had opted to harass,
    intimidate and embarrass the traditional rulers to impress it upon
    their subjects to vote for the PDP candidates in the elections.

    Addressing reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, Spokesperson of the
    forum Zakari Baba Yusuf said that “the PDP and its leader Bukola
    Saraki having seen clearly that they have lost the next general
    elections and having run out of campaign strategies have opted for the crude and cruel method of harassing, abusing, embarrassing and intimidating our traditional rulers to influence the collective
    decision of the people, particularly the youth who have absolutely
    resolved to change the status quo.

    “APYF Kwara north is deeply concerned on the unwarranted manner our royal fathers are being frequently invited to Ilorin, the state
    capital

  • Kwara: Group lauds Gobir’s appointment into presidential campaign team

    A sociopolitical group, Gobir Organisation, has congratulated an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Kwara State, Waziri Yakubu Gobir, on his appointment as the patron of Presidential Support Committee of the party. Gobir was a gubernatorial aspirant of the APC in last year’s primary election of the party. The group in a press statement released by its media office and made available to newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital, yesterday described the appointment as well deserved.

    The group commended the committee members for deeming Gobir fit to serve as the patron. It noted that Gobir’s appointment was in recognition of his passion, patriotism and contribution to President Buhari’s re-election bid. “The appointment of our principal will help in no mean way to galvanise more support for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari. Waziri Gobir has over the years displayed uncommon commitment to the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    “We deemed it necessary to identify with Gobir on his appointment because he is a true loyal party man and he believes so much in the cause of President Muhammadu Buhari. We believe this will be a catalyst to encourage him to do more. He has committed himself to donating utility vehicles to the re-election campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari. He will be doing something novel in the coming weeks in our state,” the statement reads.

  • Why I joined APC – Former Kwara deputy speaker

    Malam Mohammed Suka-Baba, a former Deputy Speaker of the Kwara House of Assembly says his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was in the interest of his community.

    Suka-Baba said this on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin.

    He explained that President Muhammadu Buhari, had done much for the community.

    Suka-Baba, who hailed from Venra, in Kaiama Local Government Area (LGA) of the state was the deputy speaker in the house from 2003 to 2007.

    According to him, APC remains the only platform through which the aspiration of his people can be met.

    Read Also: Former Kwara deputy speaker, others defect to APC

    “Buhari is doing much for us, the Kishi-Kaiama road is under construction, just last week, the Federal Executive Council approved the construction of Kaiama-Wawa road.

    “These have been the agitation of our people for a long time,” he said.

    He said the community had resolved to work for the re-election of Buhari and other APC candidates in the forthcoming election.

    The former lawmaker stated that his return to the APC was home-coming as he was a founding member of the party.

    Suka-Baba reportedly led hundreds of his supporters to decamp from the PDP to APC in January.

  • APC campaigns in Kwara, Kogi today

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) will be in Kwara and Kogi states today to seek support for President Muhammadu Buhari and other candidates of the ruling party.

    The train will move to Delta and Edo tomorrow and Kaduna on Friday.

    Niger and Plateau states will host the council on Saturday, while Borno and Yobe will take their turn next Monday.

    Read also: PEF introduces censor to monitor fuel consumption

    The PCC will hit Sokoto and Kebbi states on Tuesday, Enugu and Anambra on January 24, Oyo and Osun on January 26 and Kano on January 27.

    The council will move to Imo and Abia, Cross River and Ebonyi and Ogun states on January 29, 30 and 31.

     

  • Saraki and the ghost of Southwest

    OVERWHELMED by the “O to ge”(Enough is Enough) wildfire, the embattled President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, flagged off the PDP campaign in the state by whipping up sentiments against APC. He said a vote for APC would be like excising Kwara  State from the North and integrating it with the Southwest.

    But he spoke without recourse to history because no one has affinity with the Southwest than him. Take a look at his antecedents: His paternal grandmother was from Iseyin in Oyo State; his mother hails from Owo in Ondo State; and his wife is from the famous royal Ojora family in Lagos State. He gave his daughter out to a Prince from Ijebuland in the Southwest with a prospect of being a princess.

    If he catches cold in Kwara State, he seeks relief in his posh mansion in Lagos, which is more of a second home to him. What affinity does Saraki Dynasty have with Abeokuta when it became an issue in the second and third republic? There is no record of the Senate President either fluent in Hausa or Fulfulde. He also does not have any mansion in Kaduna or anywhere else in the North. Let him prove his Northern character.

  • Atiku accuses Buhari, APC of using state resources, apparatuses for campaign

    The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has accused President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of using state resources as apparatuses for electioneering campaign.

    Describing the action as a violation of the nation’s electoral laws, Atiku said Buhari and the APC have been acting contrary to claims by the President that he would not use state resources for election.

    In a statement Thursday by his media Adviser, Mr. Paul Ibe, the PDP presidential candidate called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to sanction President Buhari and the APC for violating the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

    The statement said, “Recall that the National Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had in December of last year warned incumbent office holders against using state resources or apparatuses for their campaigns, or deploying same against their opponents.

    “Prof. Yakubu, who issued the warning at a lecture titled “Political corruption and other emerging issues for the 2019 elections” in Abuja, noted that the commission has the power to monitor campaign financing and sources of funds according to the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

    “However, in negation of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, the Buhari administration and the APC has taken to the illegal deployment of state resources to its advantage for the election.

    Read Also: Atiku blames APC for joblessness, insecurity

    “We wish to remind President Buhari and the APC that the use of state videos released by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture is illegal under the Electoral Act 2010 as amended.

    “The media is awash with advertisements with the hashtag #PMBDIDIT and signed by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture and referencing so-called achievements of the APC administration in the states of Abia, Kwara, Lagos, Ebonyi, Delta and Kano, among others”.

    These, Atiku said, were without doubt, 2019 presidential campaign materials produced by the Ministry of Information and Culture using state resources and apparatuses to benefit President Buhari.

    “This appalling conduct, which is clearly in violation of Section 100 of the Electoral Act, is even more shocking when it is recalled that the state resources being used to the illegal advantage of President Buhari are being drawn from agencies which for over three years, prior to this election, failed to perform their duties to the benefit of Nigerian citizens. The Ministry of Information and Culture must stop this illegality immediately.

    “We demand that INEC issues an immediate cease and desist order to both the Ministry of Information and Culture and to the broadcast channels running it.

    “We also insist that INEC register the media spend behind it as part of the APC’s total N1 billion campaign spend limit.

    “Fortunately, INEC is alert to this danger and itself warned the ruling party to refrain from such conduct. Now that the party has clearly flouted the law in negation of the electoral umpire’s warning, we urge that INEC sanctions them accordingly”.