Politicians across the three senatorial districts of Kwara State; Kwara South, Kwara Central, and Kwara North under the auspices of the Kwara APC Elders Caucus have rejected the attitude and manner, in which the party’s governorship candidate has been chosen by the governor of the state, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
Arising from a three-day consultative and strategic meeting in Abuja with critical stakeholders including the Honourable Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi who hails from Kwara South; the APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio amongst others, the caucus organized an instructive world press conference to convey their grievance.
The core of their displeasure arises from the alleged undemocratic way and manner a supposed governorship candidate, in the person of the current Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Salihu Yakubu Danladi, was picked for the party.
Among the fundamental issues raised by the caucus include an absolute lack of wide consultation with party members, a total deficit of credibility in how the state chapter is being run, and a complete absence of transparency. The caucus alleged frantically that there were no real elections or democratic congresses held in the state. They alleged that while the time officially slated for the primary congress was three o’clock in the afternoon, the venue where the election was meant to take place remained completely empty, only for a predetermined result to be abruptly announced by five o’clock.
The leadership of the caucus pointed out the absolute logistical impossibility of conducting and collating statewide results within such a short two-hour period. They cited that a journey from Kaiama in Kwara North to the state capital of Ilorin takes a minimum of nine hours by road, making it completely evident and clear that the governor had simply masterminded and fabricated the released results.
Speaking during the visit to the party’s national chairman, the leader of the caucus, Elder J.B Ayenioye, made it unequivocally clear that should the national leadership of the party fail to intervene and allow the governor’s slipshod, handpicked arrangement to stand, the aggrieved members and stakeholders across the state may not only be forced to seek alternative avenues to achieve their collective political objectives but sadly, the APC may lose Kwara to the opposition party.
While emphasizing that the purpose of their Abuja summit was to alert the national leadership of the party to the dangerous reality on ground, the caucus further disclosed that a petition containing their displeasure has been forwarded to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through the Office of the Chief of Staff to address the matter.
Following their primary declarations, the Elders Caucus also held a crucial comparison and alignment meeting with aggrieved APC governorship aspirants in the state, who were represented by an eleven-member delegation where all parties agreed that a transparent process must be instituted within a short period of time to avert looming catastrophe within the party in Kwara. They equally resolved that whoever is democratically chosen among the aspirants shall receive the maximum support of the entire party structure.