• Saraki Boasts, As Council Polls Hold Amid Confusion
FOLLOWING alleged complaints lodged by Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman, to relevant authorities, including the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), over the authenticity the party’s candidates in yesterday’s council polls in Kwara State, the elections held in an atmosphere of uncertainty.
Police authorities could not be reached for t confirmation of whether, or not, they were to stay off the polls on the order of the Inspector General of police Mohammed Abubakar.
Sources, within the Force, however, told The Guardian in Ilorin that the Police received no such order, even as some officers around the polling booths were unarmed.
Despite the state government’s stay-at-home order between the hours of 8am and 3pm, except for those on essential services, many citizens of the state defied the order without any police harassment.
Yemi Afolayan, the Secretary of the PDP in the state, said: “Since the opposition has “no muscles to contest in the elections due to their minute population, what then do you expect the Police to do? Where there is no opposition, there will be no crisis.” Kayode Olawepo, former Chairman of the defunct ACN in the state, described the election as one-sided, and said he was trusting in the order of the court to quash it.
A member of the Bamanga Tukur-led PDP in the state, Mr. Kunle Sulyman, described the polls as a charade adding, ‘let us see how far this can go.”
But Chairman of the splinter group of the party, Abubakar Baraje, yesterday, in Ilorin, said members of his group are not fighting a “personal battle but (drawing attention to) the need to save the face of the nation’s democracy.”He debunked the claims that the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, had allegedly directed the police through the state’ Police Commissioner, Oshodi Glover, to withdraw “men and officers” from the elections into 15 of the 16 Local Government Areas (LGA) of Kwara State.
The 16th council, Offa, recently held its own election following a court directive.
He addressed reporters shortly after casting his votes at his Okelele Electoral ward.
The election, which commenced at 12 noon was peaceful and orderly across the state despite the withdrawal of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the leading opposition party in the state.
Baraje said, “the PDP will win 100 per cent. We have done it before, We are still doing it. Kwara State is a unique state that delivers, right from the grassroots to the national level, 100 per cent for THE PDP.
“I can see security here and there. They are very much around. I was coming from GRA to my family house here. They stopped me in about three or four places and they are security operatives doing their job.
“I slept very late yesterday putting finishing touches to the election with other stakeholders and our leader, Bukola Saraki. The party did not tell us they received any letter, and the security did not tell us they received any letter.
“Let me quickly point out again that we were here about two months ago to prepare for this election and to receive officials from the National secretariat of the PDP whom we have written to, to send in its team to come and screen these candidates for today. And they’ve screened them. There are correspondences. These correspondences are available at the Secretariat of the PDP, Kwara State.”
Speaking with reporters at his Agbaaji ward, former Governor of the State, Bukola Saraki, expressed happiness “with the large turnout of voters,” adding that Kwara is dominated by the PDP.
According to Saraki, “this turn out is a sign that we are solid here in Kwara. Again, it shows that those against us are few. They will soon come back to us. It has always been like this; it is not a new thing.”
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