Date: 2018-09-12

TRADITIONAL rulers in the Kwara North senatorial district of Kwara State have appealed to political leadership in the State to zone 2019 governorship position to the area in the interest of justice.

The monarchs: Emir of Gwanara, Alhaji Sabi Idris, Emir of Yashikira, Alhaji Umar Usman Seriki and Waziri of Ilesha-Baruba, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, who spoke in an emotion-laden voice, called for support of people from other districts to actualize their dream.

Speaking when a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant, Mallam Zakari Mohammed, visited the royal fathers in their palaces to seek their blessings, Emir of Gwanara, Alhaji Sabi A Idris, said that they had been supportive of people from other zones before now.

"As one of the founding fathers of Kwara State, I played my role by joining others to lay solid foundations for the State, strolling down memory lane, I recall the sacrifices we made. We have also been supportive to the people of other parts of Kwara State. We willingly and happily embrace candidates that other zones have produced. I am happy that I am alive to witness having an aspirant from here for the first time. It is my expectation that the people will reciprocate by supporting your candidature. I don't expect anything less from other Kwarans.

"May I also appeal to our sons and daughters to please work in unison to get our long-time aspiration, that is well-deserved, achieved by being totally committed to the cause," he said.

Also speaking, Emir of Yashikira, Alhaji Umar Usman Seriki, called on people of the area to show commitment to the dream.

"The time is finally here. The task before us is to ensure that we achieve a long-time dream. Every Batonou son and daughter has two roles to play. The first is to pray and the second one is to show commitment and work towards getting the agenda achieved. It is a religious duty that we must all consider important," he said.

In his own contribution, Waziri of Ilesha-Baruba, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, appealed to people from other areas of the State to reciprocate their previous supports.

"We have supported people of other zones. We have done the needful in respect of showing that we are good neighbours. Our efforts should be appreciated and recognized by reciprocating the gestures. We expect everybody in the other parts of Kwara State to readily support us," he said.

Also speaking, the governorship aspirant, Mallam Zakari Mohammed, said that his focus would be agriculture if elected as Governor of the State.

"I will focus on Agriculture if elected Governor I will ensure the opportunities it offers are maximally put into positive use. You can touch the lives of millions through agriculture, that it is why it is a business venture allowed for everybody; civil servants, political office holders etc. We intend to look into how we can make agriculture alluring and attractive to the youths. Agriculture stands as a solution to many problems, It can help check rural-urban drift, It can reduce unemployment, It is also vastly more effective in reducing crime rate because once the youths are meaningfully engaged, they will not get involved in criminal activities. We have to quickly turn to agriculture because that is where one can do the quickest work and earn results," Hon. Zakari Mohammed said.