Date: 2014-08-04

The Kwara State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected in clear, unequivocal terms, the allegation by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that PDP supporters were responsible for the alleged vandalisation of a few billboards of the APC in parts of Ilorin.

This allegation is not only reckless and hasty, but clearly made in bad faith. We make bold to say that this latest spate of violence is premeditated by the APC itself - it might be a prelude to the rain of violence that the ruling party and its government are planning to visit on PDP members across the state in the name of 'revenge'.

Or, how else do we describe a situation whereby the APC, without the benefit of a police investigation, let alone an arrest, would descend to the gutter level of alleging without proof? That the APC's first port of call, in less than 24 hours to the occurrence of the alleged vandalism, is the media and not the police, should naturally arose suspicion from all right thinking members of the public. Why rush to the media when the police and other relevant security agencies have not commenced investigations, let alone make arrest? Is this a way of also pre-empting the outcome of police investigations?

The APC, by this repulsive hype, has made itself the complainant, the jury and even the executioner! What can be more lawless than this? This renewed APC manufactured violence has no doubt lent credence to talks on the street that the APC actually masterminded the vandalism in a desperate bid to divert people's attention from the violence visited on the posters and billboards of the PDP and its chieftains on the eve of the Eid fitr which held recently.

A case in point was the brazen vandalism of the posters and billboards of Mr. Dele Belgore (SAN), Alhaji Jani Ibrahim and Hajia Bilkisu Gambari, three prominent chieftains of the PDP who deployed the billboards and handbills to felicitate with Kwarans on the celebration of the Eid. While some were outrightly shred to pieces by suspected APC thugs, others had the presidential campaign posters of Sen. Bukola Saraki super-imposed over them!

Similar tactics were used by suspected APC hoodlums on the eve of the visit of President Goodluck Jonathan to Kwara for the Unity Rally, which led to the arrest of confessed APC thugs, who in turned led the police to the office of the printer that was hired by another SA to Governor Ahmed to print posters meant to be imposed on the PDP billboards! The latter scenario was widely reported and the APC has not had the courage to apologise.

But instead of resorting to violence or make noise out of it, we duly petitioned the police commissioner and asked him to investigate a serving Special Assistant (SA) to Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed who was caught red handed vandalizing the billboards. The petition was dated 30th July, 2014, a copy of which was also forwarded to the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

And since we have been getting positive updates from the police, particularly the fact that the suspected SA had been invited for interrogations, we have no cause to take the laws into our hands. Instead of resorting to violence, we have sought protection under the law of the lands. We have also taken solace in the fact that the storm, the peril and the oppression that we are all suffering today in the hands of the APC and its thugs, will soon be over in less than eight months, which is the final exit date of the APC-led government in Kwara State.

However, a second and potent look at the situation may point to a deeper reflection of the internal crisis that is presently rocking the Kwara APC. It might be an open expression of frustration by APC members to the repression that they suffer in the hand of a single overlord, who is remote-controlling all of them in the party. If the APC structure in Kwara is not in tatters as being claimed, when then are some APC legislators in the Kwara State House of Assembly reportedly rooting for the impeachment of the governor? Why has the house leadership remained mute since the alleged impeachment move was blown by the media?

Could this latest violence therefore be a spontaneous reaction of supporters of Governor Abdulfath Ahmed to the widely reported bid of his godfather, Sen. Bukola Saraki, to impeach the sitting governor? Could it be that the open frustrations displayed by APC members to the faces of the representatives of the APC during the controversial Town Hall Meeting in the Governor’s ancestral Igominaland of Oyun, Offa, Aje-Ipo and Omu-Aran, is now being taken a notch higher? Why are elders of the APC, led by Chief Emmanuel Sayomi from Irepodun LGA, openly rejecting the presidential bid of Sen. Bukola Saraki?

These are credible variables that may help the police unravel the mystery surrounding the alleged vandalism. And this is why we are asking the APC to honestly do a soul searching, look within its folds to be able to identify the culprits.

But as credible as the variables, such violent conduct by APC members is nevertheless reprehensible and condemnable. This is why we agree with the APC that the vandalism be thoroughly investigated and perpetrators be brought to book in no time.

The handwriting of rejection of the APC by Kwarans of all shades has been long written on the wall. Unfortunately, the APC has been living in denial of it.

Rex. Kola Olawoye, Publicity Secretary, Kwara PDP