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.
Abdulrahman Abdulrasak Joseph Daudu Samuel Adaramola Omoniyi M. Ayinla Wakilin Mata Lafiagi Yusuf Zulu-Gambari The Herald Atiku Abubakar Okin Group Government Girls’ Day Secondary School Pakata Yakub Ali-Agan Dele Belgore Olufolake Abdulrazaq HYPPADEC Folaranmi Aro University Road Shaykh Luqman Jimoh Kamaldeen Ajibade KWACOBPA Ayoade Akinnibosun Ohoro Of Shao Ilorin Talaka Parapo (ITP) Bello Oyebanji Abdulfatah Ahmed Ibrahim Sulu Gambari Abdulkadri Ahmad Alaiye Oniye Abdulwaheed Musa Asiwaju Bola Tinubu Yakubu Gobir Ado Bayero National Association Of Nigerian Students Saudat Abdulbaqi Valsolar Consultoria Ilesha Gwanara Road Muhammed Aliyu Olubukola Kifayat Adedeji Unilorin Noah Yusuf Issa Baba Al-Hikmah University Shuaib Olarongbe Abdulrasaq Alaro Toun Okewale-Sonaiya Umar Ayinla Saro Abikan 2017 Budget Yemi Osinbajo Valsolar-Kwara Company Limited Congress For National Consensus Abubakar Aliagan Adanla-Irese Siraj Oyewale Oba Mogaji Abdulkadir Wahab Isa Computer Based Test Lai Mohammed Radio SBS Yusuf Amuda Gobir Dar-Al-Handasah Consultants Ltd Gamji Members Association COVID Bio Ibrahim Babata Sardauna Of Ilorin Chief Imam Of Ilorin Vasolar Consortium Madawaki Of Ilorin Azeez Bello Dauda Adeniran Adeshola A.G.F Abdulrasaq TETFUND Maryam Nurudeen Tafida Of Kaiama UTME Shehu Jimoh Ilorin Emirate Stakeholders Forum

