Date: 2014-04-30

THE era of violence may gradually be creeping back into Kwara State politics, going by the spate of aggression that marred the ward congress of the state chapter of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP).

  It was reminiscent of past episodes of politics in the state when the fourth Executive Governor of the 47-year-old state, Mohammed Lawal, fell out with the godfather of Kwara politics, Dr. Olusola Saraki.

  Saraki, flamboyant former Senate Leader in the Second Republic, had presented Lawal as his candidate for the governorship poll under the banner of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP). 

  The keenly contested election saw the APP winning by about 56 per cent of all categories of elective positions in the state.

  Animosity between the now deceased politicians however commenced when it was rumoured that Saraki would not be presenting Lawal for re-election to the office of governor.

  Thereafter, the once united political hegemonic family in the state became polarised, leading to the emergence of ‘Gbosa’ (Lawal’s) and ‘Gbemu’ (Saraki’s) camps. 

  During the period under review, dangerous weapons were freely used at political rallies and campaigns, resulting in the untimely death of some cronies of the two politicians.

  As if re-enacting that to-be-forgotten era, the PDP family in the state on Monday, April 7 this year, threw the state’s secretariat on Old Ilorin/Jebba Road, Kulende, Ilorin, into a mini warfront where dangerous guns and cutlasses were deployed by aggrieved party faithful. 

  The bloody session, which lasted for over two hours (11.00am-1pm), according to eyewitness accounts, led to the temporary closure of the road, causing vehicles passing through a bye-pass on the Kulende Housing Estate, to move at snail-speed due to the bumpy nature of the route. 

  At the cessation of the hostilities, one person was feared killed while several others, including a petrol station attendant at directly opposite of the secretariat, received serious injuries mainly from gunshots.

  Suspected thugs, who cordoned-off the Oke-Andi junction of Kulende, some 400 metres away from the secretariat, set up bonfires and attacked unsuspecting motorists with cudgels and broken bottles.

  They were allegedly protesting the death of two of their members.

  But the timely arrival of the police forced the thugs to beat a retreat. Several tear-gas canisters were released into the air, making life unbearable for residents within the vicinity of the epicentre of the crisis.

  The Police spokesman in Kwara, Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed the death of one person. 

  He said 19 suspects were arrested in connection with the crisis just as many dangerous weapons were equally recovered.  

  A source at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin, claimed that two men were rushed into the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital at about 1:30pm with gunshot wounds in the legs.

TILL date, conflicting reports trailed the true cause or causes of the bloody clash. 

  A group claimed that the issue of haphazard sharing of honorarium given by an unnamed stalwart of the party to his supporters caused the mayhem.

  Another account disclosed that the feud was allegedly bankrolled by the opposition party with the sole aim of causing disaffection among the PDP faithful and thus scuttle the party congress.  

  But the Local Organising Secretary of the PDP, Rex Olawoye, described the crisis as a sign of acceptability of the party in the state. 

  In a chat with The Guardian in Ilorin, Olawoye said: “Everybody loves what has prospect and so will want to be relevant at all cost. 

  “What happened could be the handiwork of the opposition but we are leaving that for the police to decide.”

  The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara has lambasted the local PDP for allegedly threatening the prevalent peace in the state. 

  According to the Interim Director of Publicity of the APC, Olayinka Buhari, the PDP should emulate the APC, which, a few days earlier, had conducted “rancour-free ward congresses of the party across the state.”

  While “commiserating with those who lost their lives at the PDP secretariat,” Buhari canvassed due compensation to the family members of the deceased, just as he urged the people of the state to vote for “the party (APC) that will at all times guarantee the safety of life and property of all the citizens of the state.”

  In the same vein, the Interim Secretary of the APC in Kwara, Yemi Afolayan, advised the state police command to either order a relocation of the PDP from its secretariat or extract from the party’s leaders peaceful conduct of all its activities. 

  According to Afolayan, the road on which the secretariat is built “remains the only road into the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH). Any nuisance or criminal acts on the road could lead to loss of lives.”

  But the Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan on National Assembly Matters, Makanjuola Ajadi, described the APC pieces of advice as those coming from “people who are buying time in power and therefore looking for anything to cling on to.” 

  Ajadi queried: “Between the APC and the PDP in Kwara, who has the higher records of death during parties activities?”

  As it is, Kwarans have one thing ahead of them, as the count down to 2015 polls begins: a choice between the ruling APC and the opposition PDP in the state.