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.
Muftau Akanbi Oke Abiodun Oyedepo Moses Salami Bareke SDP Ilorin International Airport Yunus Lawal Abubakar Imam Binta Abubakar Mora Voices Of Tomorrow Muhammad Sirajo Aliyu Olumide Daniel Ibitoye Mohammed Kamaludeen Sheriff Olanrewaju Adebayo Mohammed Kamaldeen IYA ALFA NLA Ibrahim Taiwo Sa\'adu Gambari Niyi Osundare Abdulrazaq Akorede Arik Lasiele Alabi Yahaya Nigeria Foundation For Artificial Intelligence Oloje Funmilayo Mohammed Popo-Igbonna Ayobami Akanbi 07039448763 Mazars Consulting Sadiq Umar Suwa-Arabs Yusuf AbdulRasheed Kwara State Branch Of The National Library ASUU Kwara State Fish Farmers Association Wole Oke Ileloke Agbarigidoma Alikinla Gambari Ibrahim Taiwo Road Ahmed Ayinla Jimoh JUSUN Ophthalmological Society Of Nigeria Omotoso Musa Lithium Deposit Tricycle Owners Association Of Nigeria Sheriff Shagaya CLAY POT Okin High School Balogun Ajikobi Kemi Adeosun Oyun Rex Olawoye Ilorin Emirate Hameed Oladipupo Ali Sadiq Buhari Yusuf Abubakar Bayer Nigeria Limited Olaitan Buraimoh Abdulkadri Ahmad Alaiye Dele Belgore Abdulmumini AbdulRazaq Col. Taiwo Abubakar Usman Jos Economic And Financial Crimes Commission Lanre Badmus Solomon Edojah Abdulrahman Abdullahi Kayode Unicontinental Construction Company Abdulmalik Bashir Mopelola Risikatullahi Unilorin Olatinwo Eghe Igbinehi Baba Idris Bola Ahmed Tinubu IHS Towers

