Minister of National Planning, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, yesterday faulted the conduct of presidential elections in Kwara State, describing it as a sham and electoral tragedy.

He alleged connivance of the police and the opposition party, saying the election was marred by irregularities not only in his polling unit but across the various local governments of the state.

Addressing newsmen, the minister who is a PDP chieftain noted that the process of the election was full of "absurdities" and so PDP was not expecting any good result from it. Daily Trust reports that the minister voted in the same polling unit as the state APC leader, Senator Bukola Saraki, at Ode Opobiyi in Ajikobi ward of Ilorin West Local Government. Results of the three polling units in that ward indicated that APC defeated PDP in a wide margin.

But the minister stressed that the entire process from accreditation to the actual voting, was faulty, saying, "If actually we got it well in 2011, what happened yesterday (Saturday) was more of electoral tragedy and it will have negative implication in the future".

He alleged that there was inadequate security presence at all the polling units, adding that the three polling units were sited at residences of key APC figures.

Besides, he said the malfunctioning of the Card Readers created room "for a lot of irregularities in the accreditation process".

He listed areas where there were irregularities to include; Isale Aluko, Oja Tuntun, Ode Giwa in Asa Local Government, parts of Ilorin-East and South where he alleged that a notorious thug drove women away while thumb-printed ballot papers were stuffed in the boxes.

"I saw a connivance of the security agents in Kwara State with the opposition party. It doesn't tally with sense for instance where you have about 1, 800 potential voters with one policeman. One policeman without any gun, how will he contain the crowd", he said.

However, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Salihu absolved security agents of any wrong doing in the election, saying they did their best to police the state during the exercise.