The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara state appear spoiling for war for the soul of the state going by the wave of cross-carpeting from APC to PDP. Weekly Trust chronicles recent events in the state’s political firmament as the 2015 election draws nearer.

The defection of Mr. Mohammed Dele Belgore, former All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara state to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently has tightened the jostle for the 2015 governorship ticket of the PDP.

Belgore who was the governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the 2011 election joined the PDP after many weeks of speculations about his next political movement after repudiating the APC’s decision to hand over the party’s structure to defecting former Governor Bukola Saraki who has emerged the APC leader in the state.

However prior to Belgore’s movement to PDP, the governorship candidate of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq had equally dumped the APC for the PDP alongside his supporters. He made his declaration at a recent rally organised by Senator Gbemisola Rukayyat Saraki, the younger sister of Bukola Saraki and former governorship candidate of the now rested Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN).

At the rally, prominent members of the legacy parties that merged to form the APC, like the ACN, CPC and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), as well as some elements in the Labour Party (LP) also declared for the PDP.

Therefore, analysts envisage a very tough battle ahead in picking the PDP flagbearer for the 2015 election.

Apart from the trios of Belgore, Abdulrazaq and Gbemi, other PDP chieftains who have their eyes on the Ahmadu Bello Government House Ilorin are the Chairman, Federal Character Commission (FCC), Professor Shuaib Abdulraheem, former Minister of Sports and Transport, Alhaji Isa Bio who currently chairs the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) as well as former Rep member, Hon. Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa. Both Bio and Abdulraheem also vied for the PDP ticket in 2011 and lost to the incumbent, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Though, the avalanche of defections from APC to PDP in Kwara state could be seen as a gang-up against Bukola, analysts opine that the alliance may be short-lived if individual ambitions are not handled with wisdom and diplomacy.

Will Bio sacrifice his governorship ambition for Belgore or vice-versa? What of Abdulraheem and Abdulrazaq, among other contenders that would be springing up as the election inches nearer?

While Bio hails from Kwara North; the region which has only ruled the state since 1992 when Senator Shaaba Lafiagi was governor; Belgore, Gbemisola, Abdulraheem  and Abdulrazaq hail from Kwara Central specifically in Ilorin. Bolarinwa who also vied for the PDP ticket in 2011 hails from Kwara South, the zone where the present governor hails.

Addressing his supporters, Belgore who defected alongside some of his associates and followers including Dr. Saad Omoiya, Iyiola Oyedepo, Rev. Bunmi Olusona, Toyin Ayinla, among others explained that his action was borne out of injustice in the APC with the surrendering of the party structures to new entrants. 

He said, “We said yes, anyone could be admitted to the party, but we insisted that it would be undemocratic, inequitable and even contrary to the very idea of change that APC claims it stands for, to automatically hand over the party structures to new entrants, especially when those entrants are at the commanding heart of the oppression and arrested development of Kwara and its people.

Although Belgore was silent about his governorship ambition, however at the  rally, scores of his supporters were seen chanting Belgore 2015 slogan while many of them wore t-shirts bearing similar inscription. 

However, the state APC Secretary, Prince Yemi Afolayan dismissed the defection of Belgore and others to PDP as a threat to the party.

“They have never worked together before but we do know one thing that Belgore who is their leader has not made former ACN to be peaceful. They were always at each other’s throat”, he said. Afolayan who was formerly the Secretary of PDP prior to the defection of Saraki and others maintained that the dumping of APC by Belgore and others would make the party “stronger and more cohesive”, expressing optimism that the APC would win the 2015 election.

Though the PDP stakeholders both old and new members have vowed to take over the government in 2015, it remains to be seen how it would achieve the feat going by the power of incumbency and the machinery of the government under Ahmed’s disposal.

Prince Afolayan insisted that the PDP as presently constituted cannot win the 2015 election in the state. “If you look at the success of the just concluded registration exercise, you would discover that in 2011, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed under PDP then won election with 250, 000 plus votes. Today membership of APC is over 300, 000 which means even before election, we have already won the 2015 election. So they have gone into the party that is completely fragmented”, he said.

Be that as it may the 2015 election in the state is expected to be a titanic battle.