Leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State have formally challenged Professor Olarewaju Sulaiman, the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), to provide evidence for his claim that Dr. Bukola Saraki is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Professor Sulaiman, who is an APC governorship aspirant, had alleged during a radio program that the former Senate President holds dual political identities.

In a swift reaction, the PDP Director of Planning and Strategy, Mallam Ibrahim Otukoko, dismissed the allegations as "false and misleading." He asserted that Dr. Saraki remains a committed leader of the PDP both in Kwara and at the national level.

Otukoko suggested that such claims were politically motivated and aimed at advancing personal interests ahead of the upcoming electoral cycle.

In a separate development, the Kwara PDP condemned a reported assault on women from Ifelodun Local Government Area. The women were allegedly attacked by thugs while staging a peaceful protest against the rising wave of banditry and kidnapping in their community. The party decried the use of violence against citizens exercising their right to demand better security.

Some women from Oke Ode, Agbeku, Babanla, Adanlatowns in Ifelodun Local Government Area, last week, staged a peaceful protest in Ilorin to call on the state government to redouble its effort and come to their aid over the incessant attacks by bandits and kidnappers.

The protesters said many of them had become sudden widows due to the menace. They called on the state government to rescue them from the attackers.

But the protest was marred by attack by suspected thugs who assaulted the women with canes to drive them away, an action that caused controversy among stakeholders in the state.

PDP, in a statement, decried the attacks.

The statement signed by State Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Olusegun Adewara, said, "We condemn in the strongest terms the brutal, inhumane, and utterly disgraceful assault unleashed on helpless women and children who staged a peaceful protest at the Kwara State Government House in Ilorin over the worsening insecurity in their communities."