OPINION: Operation Restore Kwara: An Update On The Just Concluded Continuous Voters Registration. By Abdullahi Imam
The ruling APC however, demonstrated panic and anxiety when it dawned on them that the majority of the people on the queue were registering to vote for freedom and change which ironically they can only find in the PDP at the moment.
Because of their rejection by the good people of Kwara, the ruling APC unleashed a lot of their election rigging machinery on the citizenry. The strategies they adopted ranged from bribing of INEC ad hoc staff members, bribing of the police and outright violence on ordinary Kwarans who refused to kowtow to their demands.
The chairman of the opposition PDP, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo in his address to the press on Friday, 22 August, 2014 stated inter alia "in Baruten LGA, officials of the state government aware of their inability to manipulate the process (in Baruten) instigated violence and induced the ad hoc staff members of the INEC with money to perpetuate their illegalities"
Akogun Oyedepo went on to further give specific instances "in Edu LGA, the commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs and a special assistant to the Governor of Kwara state, James Wangwa, instigated violence and induced INEC officials with money in Edu. In Kaiama LGA, a former commissioner for women affairs who is presently a Commissioner II at the local government service commission, illegally cornered a polling unit to her residence until the resistance of PDP members subdued her. In Irepodun, the present commissioner for finance tried to induce PDP agents with money to allow him take possession of the PVC cards but he was rebuffed by patriotic Kwarans... one Mr. Alege, a serving commissioner came to the polling centres with his well-known thugs and started using bottles, stones, cutlasses and guns to scare and disperse the voters. But for the timely intervention of the security agencies, the situation would not have been brought under control".
Our field officers at the Kwara Restoration Project also witnessed a case of assault at Oju Ekun/Sarumi Ward by an APC agent, one Alhaja Iyabo Ile Olodo. This APC agent in company of other APC agents Sulaiman Alabidun Okunniyi, Khadijat Oju Ekun, Alhaja Silifat, Alhaja Risikat Nageri and Mosere Nasiru alias Agenda assaulted an opposition PDP agent, Alhaja Segilola and she ended up hospitalized from her injuries. There was also a separate incident in Ogidi where one Yemisi Babatunde, a PDP supporter was brutalized by APC thugs still at large.
Despite all these provocation and flagrant assault by APC thugs, their sponsors and collaborators, we at the Kwara Restoration Project congratulate the good people of Kwara for your resilience even in the face of intimidation. Because you resisted the forces of darkness and stood firm in your demand for freedom and real change, you, the average Kwaran, have given all of us hope. And because of your optimism and zeal, we believe that we shall overcome.
Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi writes from Ilorin
Cloud Tag: What's trending
Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.
Kwara State Government Shagari Iyeru Grammar School Dan-Kazeem Oke-Kura Police Commissioner Ajuloopin Oloriegbe Chartered Institute Of Personnel Management Of Nigeria Cornelius Adebayo National Party Of Nigeria Lithium Deposit International Vocational Centre Adam Abdullahi Al-Ilory Abdulfatai Ahmed Okasanmi Ajayi Olatomiwa Williams Deji Ajani Baba Adini Of Kwara State Gambari Young Progressives Party Abubakar Usman Jos Wahab Agbaje Kwasu Kwara Volleyball Association Mashood Dauda Omoniyi Owode Market Oasis Muslim Care Foundation Adesoye College Sarah Jubril Wasiu Odewale Segun Olawoyin Baba-Isale Isiaka Saka Opobiyi Binta Abubakar Mora MalHub Jelili Yusuf Ubandoma Shehu Raheem Adaramaja Shehu Salau Oba-Solagberu Chikanda NURTW AGILE Programme Onilupeju Of Ilupeju Ibrahim Oloriegbe Playing Host Oluranti Idowu Rotimi Oyedepo Christopher Odetunde Oluwole Dupe Hussein Olokooba Ajayi Okasanmi Sobi FM Elerin Of Erin-Ile Ado Ibrahim Paul Odama Kwabes Toyin Abdullahi Michael Nzekwe Mohammed Yahaya Barki Olatunji Ibrahim Omu-aran Local Government Sherif Shagaya ER-KANG SUBEB National Broadcasting Commission Ayo Opadokun Lawal Jimoh Rafiu Olasile Lanre Aremu Raymond Olaitan Mahmud Ayinla Giwa Rasheed Jimoh Hijaab

