Date: 2014-11-23

Kwara Restoration Project (KRP), a watchdog group of professionals and public intellectuals with deep interest in socio-political and economic development of Kwara State, held an extraordinary emergency meeting of its members at the weekend in Ilorin, Kwara State. It is trite to state that KRP is not affiliated to any political party and has members drawn from across the length and breadth of Kwara state.

Members of the public would recall that the KRP had in the past months made contributions by way of opinion articles and comments on the happenings in the state, including exposing and condemning in strong terms the corruption, the ill-treatment of workers, and the criminal conversion of public properties to private estate by of the Kwara State Government under Governor Abdulfattah Ahmed and his political godfather, and has made clear its resolve to work with every Kwara person of good conscience to ensure the deceit and sheer incompetence of the Ahmed-led government end in 2015.

In the past, the KRP has had reasons to express support for some prominent Kwarans who it views as helping to advance the cause of freeing Kwara from the grip of a particular political'dealer' under whom Kwara finances have entered the red. The Kwara public would recall that we backed Prof Oba Abdulraheem during his trying times at the FCC. We have also expressed our reservation in the past against those who sought to crucify Professor Oba for joining the Kwara governorship race. We had stated clearly that like every Nigerian, Prof Oba has a right to aspire to any office and is indeed very qualified.

This being a critical moment when political parties are due to elect their candidates for various positions and with Bukola Saraki single-handedly endorsing AbdulFatah Ahmed for second term against clear evidence of non performance over the last three and a half years,the KRP resolved at its extraordinary emergency meeting that it would not be supporting the APC in the governorship race and is focusing on the opposition PDP. Whereas the PDP in Kwara State parades almost a dozen governorship aspirants each of whom boasts of good credentials in their own right, the KRP painstakingly reviewed the profiles of the aspirants and their support base.

The KRP extraordinary emergency meeting, following this assessment, unanimously resolved that regardless of the APC endorsement of AbdulFatah Ahmed, zoning is not a priority for us in Kwara at this crucial moment because it is plainly obvious to all Kwarans that AbdulFatah Ahmed serves only the material interest of Bukola Saraki and no one else.

Because of the precarious situation we have found ourselves in Kwara state, the KRP hereby unanimously endorses and supports the candidature of Barrister Muhammad Dele Belgore (SAN). This endorsement follows KRP's belief in Barrister Belgore's ability to gather enough support across the length and breadth of Kwara State to confront the Bukola Saraki election rigging machinery. Of all the PDP aspirants, KRP deems the legal luminary as the most popular and most acceptable to the Kwara people- regardless of their backgrounds. Our findings also revealed Barrister Belgore (SAN) to be the most consistent and most sellable aspirant among the Kwara electorate - old and young, men and women - if we must effect a genuine change in our state come 2015.

It is against this background that we urge other aspirants to consider backing him if their common interest is solely to fight for true freedom for our people.

We consider this endorsement of Barrister Dele Belgore (SAN) as our own civic duty as professionals and public intellectuals in Kwara State and we hope to see him emerge at the PDP governorship primaries slated for December.

Signatures:Dr. Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi (Kwara Central), Barrister Nihinlola Akande(Kwara South), and Malam Garba Ndatsu Mohammed (Kwara North) for Kwara Restoration Project.

Dr. Abdullahi Imam Abdullahi is the Chairman of KRP and can be reached on 08030755275