OPINION: Operation Restore Kwara: An Update On The Just Concluded Continuous Voters Registration. By Abdullahi Imam

Date: 2014-08-30

The continuous voters' registration has come and gone. On behalf of all of us here at the Kwara Restoration Project, I will like to congratulate all freedom and change loving Kwarans for trooping out in their thousands to register to vote. This is the first step in Operation Restore Kwara.

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.

Salihu Jibril Garbi     Akanbi-Oke     Mutawalle     Metro Park     FOMWAN     Ayoade Akinnibosun     Suleiman Rotimi Iliasu     Yusuf Aiyedun     Ahman Pategi     James Kolo     Jawondo     Jelili Yusuf     Zaratu Umar     Durbar     Aisha Abodunrin Ibrahim     Lola Olabayo     Adesoye College     Owo Isowo     Ibrahim Abduquadri Abikan     Chief Imam Of Omu-Aran     Alfa Modibo Belgore     Read With Me     Onilorin Of Ilorin     Bukola Ajikobi     Modibo Kawu     Kunle Suleiman     Smart School     Overland     Saudat Abdulbaqi     Tsaragi     Aliyu Sabi     Mahe Abdulkadir     Kayode Alabi     Ilorin Durbar     Olayinka Jelili Yusuf     Alaiye     Oladipo Akanmu Tolani     Adesoye     Fatimoh Lawal     Dan Iya     Muhammed Akanbi     David Oyepinola Adedumoye     Oba Mogaji Abdulkadir     Sulaiman Gado     Muhammadu Buhari     Yoonus Lawal     Mohammed Lawal     Kayode Laro     Wasiu Odewale     Kwasu     Yusuf AbdulRasheed     The Herald     Kumbi Titiloye     Emmanuel Olatunji Adesoye     Abubakar Olusola Saraki     Olota Of Odo-Owa     Salihu Alhaji Musa     Abatemi-Usman     Ilorin General Hospital     Ballah     Rafiu Ibrahim     Shehu Adaramaja     Muazam Nayaya     Folajimi Aleshinloye     Iyiola Oyedepo     Rapheal Ashaolu     Majlis For Sadakah, Zakat And Waqf     Abdulahi Abubakar Bata     Kola Ologbondiyan     Chief Imam Of Lafiagi     Salaudeen Oyewale     Afonja     VADA     Ibrahim Abdullahi     Ayodele Shittu     Yakub Ali-Agan     Tafida    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Kulende-UITH     Shuaibu Yaman Abdullahi     Abubakar Usman Jos     Segun Ogunsola     Col. Ibrahim Taiwo     Abdulkadir Jimoh     Ilorin Emirate Staff Association     Ilorin Like-Minds     Ibrahim Oniye     Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi     Aremu Bose Deborah     Elewu     NSCIA     Diagnostic Centre     Abatemi-Usman     Waheed Ibrahim     Naira Redesign     Chikanda     Kemi Adeosun     Young Progressives Party     Durbar Festival     FOMWAN     Bond     Abdulrazaq Magaji     Joseph Yemi Ajayi     NTA Ilorin     Chief Of Staff     Salihu Alhaji Musa     Owo Isowo     Firdaos Amasa     Oya State     Dan Masanin     Olaosebikan     Hassan Abdulazeez Elewu     KWAFFA     UNILORIN Alumni Association     Umar Ahmed Gunu     Afolayan     Isiaka Danmeromu     Muhammadu Buhari     Adaramaja     Fatimoh Lawal     Saduki Lafiagi     Government High School (GHS), Adeta     Gafaru Olayiwola Olorisade     Kwara State Polytechnic     Funmilayo Zubair     Aminat Ahmed     Harmony Holdings     Jimba Babatunde     Aisha Ahman Pategi     Olatomiwa Williams     Ahmed Bolaji Nagode     Centre For Peace And Strategic Studies     Lukman Adeloyin     Shehu Alimi Foundation     Olomu Of Omu-Aran     Fareedah Dankaka     Abubakar Suleiman     Ahmad Olayiwola Kamaldeen     Oja-Oba     National Party Of Nigeria     Ilorin South Constituency     Iyeru Grammar School     ASUU     Alimi     Ojo Fadumila     Local Government     John Kehinde Salako     Third Estate     Yusuf Lanre Badmus     ER-KANG     Abubakar Baba     ANCOPPS     Kwara United     Quran     Abdulkadir Orire