The Secretary, Kwara State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Yemi Afolayan, describes as a blatant lie the claim by the local government council chairmanship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the Offa rerun election, Saheed Popoola, that the PDP offered him N100m to defect to the party, in this interview

The local government council chairmanship candidate for All Progressives Congress in the Offa rerun election, Saheed Popoola, has said his problem with the PDP and its leaders in Kwara State started when he cried out against the deductions being made by the state government from the federal allocations to the local government? How true is that?

He should go and prove that because Popoola is somebody whose stock-in-trade is to fail to tell the truth. Sometimes, he will wake up from one side of the bed and say something that is untrue. He can even say his mother is not a woman.

Are you saying there were no deductions?

LG allocations have never been deducted by the state governor, Mr. Abdulfatah Ahmed. It has never happened. Was he the only chairman? Are there not other chairmen?

Maybe other chairman could not talk for fear that they were of PDP and would be disciplined by the party?

It is not true. That allegation is unfounded, spurious and foolish. It is just giving a dog a bad name because you want to hang it.

Many stakeholders have alleged that the rerun election was marred by electoral fraud and irregularities. What is the position of the PDP?

I have said it several times and, for the umpteenth time, I will say it again that there was a local government council election in 2010 in which the Action Congress of Nigeria was declared the winner and the Peoples Democratic Party went to the election petition tribunal. At the tribunal, we got judgment and the LG council chairman, Saheed Popoola, was removed by the court.

Then the councillors also went to court separately and the councillors of ACN were also removed. So, ultimately they appealed. The appellate tribunal upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal. So there was a rerun. In the rerun election, PDP won the election. All the 12 councillors in Offa LG won free and fair.

The election was adjudged free and fair from the accreditation, voting, up to the collation at the ward level, but it was alleged that at the Offa secretariat, the returning officer absconded?

The electoral body is the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission. We do not base our position on what ‘they alleged.’ Who alleged? APC? APC is an opposition party. So, when the opposition alleges, you do not take it. You go to the electoral body to find out what happened. As a journalist, the onus is on you to go the electoral body and find out what happened. It is not what APC said.

Popoola also alleged that the PDP tried to woo him with an offer of N100m and the PDP chairmanship ticket, which he rejected? Is that true?

It is not true. How important is Popoola that we will be begging him? He is nothing because as far we are concerned, he is not important. He is inconsequential and nobody wooed him for anything. To beg somebody to come over means that such a person is of immense value. As far as PDP is concerned, Popoola is valueless.

Are you saying PDP members did not offer him N100m and the party’s chairmanship ticket?

How could we have offered him N100m? To do what? I remember that during the tribunal when he felt that the judgment was going to be against him, he approached us and said that he wanted to come over to PDP where he belonged. Then he asked two of his associates who were in government with him to immediately defect to the PDP. Two of them defected to PDP but he refused to follow them. Those people are still with us.

It was alleged that the announcement of the purported result was done at a state radio instead of calling stakeholders and journalists to witness the declaration of the result?

Whose responsibility is it to make announcement? KWASIEC. Go to KWASIEC and find out. It is your responsibility to go to KWASIEC and put this question to them. It is not our own responsibility.

What is the response of PDP to APC’s protest?

Protest against who?

Against the PDP and KWASIEC for an alleged electoral fraud.

APC, instead of protesting in Offa, came to the streets of Ilorin to protest and 70 per cent of the people that came to make the protest were from Osun and Lagos states. It is Offa LG that should be concerned and not people from Osun and Lagos. The truth is that we know that they want to destroy the peaceful life and co-existence in Kwara. We have reported to the police to deal decisively with whoever wants to destroy the peace of Kwara. If they are aggrieved, the election petition is there. They should go there.

Popoola alleged that PDP wanted to cause disaffection and violence in the state.

The man does not know what he is talking about. It is the stock in trade of APC. They will bring their thugs from Osun State and beat themselves and complain that they are being beaten. That is what they do. We have witnessed it on several occasions.

Are you saying PDP never wanted to cause violence in Offa?

How will PDP want to cause violence? PDP that is in government, PDP that is ruling the state, how will you now disrupt the peace of your own people? What is the meaning of government? Government is solution department of our lives. So PDP cannot cause violence. They are the ones who lost in the election and are angry because they lost. But they should give peace a chance.

Since the Offa rerun is alleged to have been marred with electoral fraud and imperfection, some people hold the view that the forthcoming LG elections in the state will also be rigged by the PDP?

Did APC rig election in Lagos, Osun, Ogun, Ondo and Edo states? We believe in the rule of law here. We believe in the security agencies here. We trust them and the KWASIEC. Remember it was KWASIEC that conducted the last LG election in which they were declared winner and we took it to the court, which later led to the rerun election. If they do not want to take part in the forthcoming elections, maybe they are afraid they will lose again.

If APC goes to tribunal over the rerun election result...

We expect them to go to the tribunal. That is why I said you cannot beat a child and stop him from crying. They have lost an election, they are bound to agitate and when you agitate, you go to the tribunal.

Are you not afraid that you may lose at the tribunal?

We will never lose at the tribunal because we are sure we won free and fair. Why should we be afraid? We are on ground and we are doing the right thing for our people. So why should we be afraid?

So what is your advice to those who are alleging electoral irregularities and fraud?

They should give peace a chance , follow their manifestos and maybe if they cannot find peace in APC, the door is open in PDP; they can come and join us. The umbrella is big enough for all of us.

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