OPINION: Operation Restore Kwara: An Update On The Just Concluded Continuous Voters Registration. By Abdullahi Imam

Date: 2014-08-30

The continuous voters' registration has come and gone. On behalf of all of us here at the Kwara Restoration Project, I will like to congratulate all freedom and change loving Kwarans for trooping out in their thousands to register to vote. This is the first step in Operation Restore Kwara.

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.

Basit Olatunji     Agor Market     Kazeem Gbolagade     Bola Sagaya     AbdulKareem Yusuf Danhawa     Kisira     TIIDELab     Dele Belgore     Mustapha Akanbi     Sardauna Of Ilorin     Henry Makinwa     AbdulRazaq Jiddah     Al-Adaby     Aliyu Muhammad Saifudeen     Yoruba     Seun Bolaji     Kayode Yusuf     Egbewole     Ilorin Likeminds Foundation     Olota Of Odo-Owa     Kola Bukoye     Shagari     Road Transport Employers Association Of Nigeria     United Nigeria Congress Party     Yaru     SAPZ Project     Kayode Oyin-Zubair     Abdulraheem Yusuf     Owode Market     Rafiu Ibrahim     Yusuf Abubakar     Admiralty Villa     Forgo Battery Company Limited     Oko-Olowo     NaAllah     Lafiagi     Kwara State Coalition Of Business And Professional Associations     Old Oyo     TESCOM     Oluwarotimi Boluwatife Adenike     Mohammed Kamaludeen     Abdul-Rasheed Na\'Allah     Oniyangi     Ambassador Kayode Laro     Hakeem Lawal     Pakata Development Association     Agbarigidoma     High Court     Ibrahim Agboola Gambari     Saidu Kawu     Adesoye     Bond     Sulyman Abdulkareem     Ilorin Metro Park     Olusin Of Ijara Isin     Oyin-Zubair     IESA     Aminu Adisa Logun     Sabitiyu Grillo     TVC Female National Debate     Yusuf Aiyedun     Haruna Olawale Sulaiman     Falokun-Oja     Umar Sanda Yusuf     Abubakar Usman Jos     Maigidasanma     Micheal Imodu-Ganmo Road     Yusuf Arowosaye     Maimunat Oloriegbe     Roseline Oni Aremu     Nigeria Customs Service     Taofeek Sanusi     Muhammad Akande Olarewaju Odunade     College Of Education     Ejidongari     Abdulkadri Ahmad Alaiye     Iyeru Grammar School    

Cloud Tag: What's trending

Click on a word/phrase to read more about it.

Eleja Taiwo Banu     Nigerian Army     Ronke Adeyemi     Abdulfatai Ahmed     Lanre Olosunde     Aminat Ahmed     Kolade Solagberu     Afin Descendants Union Of Odo-Owa     Gbemi Saraki     Ebola     Abdullahi Biffo     Aliyu Kora-Sabi     Shuaibu Yaman     Tafida Of Kaiama     Mansur Alfanla     Abdullateef Abdussalam     Modibo Kawu     Amusa Bello     Senate Presidency     Timothy Akangbe     Azeez Bello     Share-Tsaragi     Haashim Initiative For Community Advancement     Unilorin FM     Abdulganiy Abimbola Abdussalam     Ibrahim Abdullahi     Kale Ayo     Air Peace     Mansurat Amuda-Kannike     Photo News     Earlyon Technologies     General Hospital, Offa     Gabriel Fashanu     Ibrahim Issa Jetti     Hassanat Bello     Muslim Cementary     Kubra Kazum     March 18     George Funsho Adebayo     ER-KANG Mining     Bursary     Bamidele Aluko     YAKOOYO     Elerinjare-Ibobo     Abdullahi Samari     Hussein Oloyede     Makama Of Kaiama     Abubakar Abdullahi Bata     Alabi Olayemi Abdulrazak     Deji Ajani     Alapado     Okala Baba     Oba Abdulrahim     Omupo     Khairat Gwadabe     Abdullahi AbdulMajeed     Sa\'adu Salau     Biliaminu Aliu     Isa Aremu     Abikan     Ophthalmological Society Of Nigeria     John Kehinde Salako     Eleja     Bareke     Ajikobi     Dunmade     Mohammed Kamaludeen     Adamu Atta     Kale Belgore     Doyin Agbamu     Akom Construction And Engineering Synergy Ltd     Okoolowo     Mope Dasuki Belgore     Ridwan Agboola     Femi Agbaje     Vasolar Consortium     Towobola Abdulrahman Toyin