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2019 Polls: Kwara in the throes of violence

Published by The Nation on Sun, 20 Jan 2019


Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, writes that if not promptly checked, the rising waves of violent attacks in the politics of Kwara State could lead to a breakdown of law and order and also flaw the forthcoming 2019 general elections in the state.The 2019 general election promises to be the most keenly contested election in the political history of Kwara State since Nigerias return to democracy in 1999, an unusual development compared to past polls in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-controlled state. This is just as the opposition in the state expresses concerns that the ruling PDP is determined to do anything possible to remain in power.Of course, the Senate President Bukola Saraki-led PDP has been telling those who care to listen that it is still very much the party to beat in the coming election, while describing the allegations against it as the ranting of failed politicians in the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). The duo of Saraki and Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed, who returned to the PDP last year from the APC, say their former party no longer has a base in the state.Of course, the opposition APC and its candidates are boasting of their readiness to rid the state of the PDP and its chieftains. According to Kayode-Oyin-Zubair, a chieftain of the party, the Saraki political family is no longer acceptable to the people of the state and as such, PDP will be massively rejected by the people of Kwara during the next elections across the state.Expectedly, the two political parties have been going all over the state campaigning and urging the people to give them their votes at the polls. But a major sore in the electioneering campaign in Kwara State remains the incessant violent attacks on lives and properties by suspected political thugs. What started late last year as unprovoked attacks on billboards and posters has now led to the loss of a couple of lives.Unless the relevant authorities take urgent steps, the entire electoral process in Kwara State may be flawed by violence. What is happening is unusual in the politics of our state. It is worrisome that the ruling PDP is daily being fingered in many of the violent moves. This is why many people are saying the party is unwilling to leave power after several years of being in charge, Hassan Alagago, an executive of Erinle Students Association (ESA), told The Nation.Adding his voice to the alarm being raised over the violent turn of political campaigns in the north central state, Oyin-Zubair accused the ruling party of trying to suppress the will of the people through fear and fury. Saraki and his co-travellers should know even violence cannot suppress a determined people for long. All over Kwara today, the slogan you hear is O to gee (enough is enough). That should tell PDP their time is up. Resorting to violent attacks is a panic reaction on their part, he said.But, speaking to reporters on the most recent incident of violence, the Director General of the PDP campaign council in the state, Prof. Suleiman Abubakar, said the orgy of violence was being perpetrated by the opposition as a way of instilling fear in the minds of residence ahead of the coming general elections, having discovered that Kwarans have rejected them. He says the song on the lips of Kwarans, contrary to claims by APC, is actually O tun ya (lets do it again).A close shaveThe governorship candidate of the APC in the state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, last Sunday escaped death by the whiskers as thugs fired gunshots into a rally he was attending, according to eye witness reports. The development has once again led observers of the politics of the state to call on relevant agencies to promptly move to curb the festering election violence in the state.The party later announced that one of its members died while about 30 vehicles of members were destroyed by thugs in the attack on its rally at Ode Alfa Nla in Ilorin, the state capital. Its governorship candidate, Abdulrazaq, was said to have been hurriedly whisked away from the venue. The thugs wanted to attack our candidate but for the promptness of his security details, a party stalwart claimed.Kwara Central senatorial candidate, Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, said the injured were receiving treatment at different hospitals. He spoke in the presence of Abdulrazaq and party stalwarts. AbdulRazaq reiterated that no threat of violence could suppress the peoples resolve to change the status quo. According to him, Sundays attack was the fourth targeted at him, starting with the attack on his convoy last November in Kwara South.Calling for an end to violence in the build up to the next election, the APC gubernatorial hopeful said, We call on our people not to be discouraged or scared by the attacks. It will end when the change we are seeking is achieved. You cant impose your will on the people. What you have are a people clutching at straws. They are drowning men and they are on their way out. The violence is the only answer they have to the O to gee agitations going on in town. It shouldnt be.We are determined to bring about a better deal for our people. We will do this peacefully. People want a breath of fresh air and their response to that is violence. We wont join them to encourage violence. We will keep on reporting them to the appropriate authorities because this is our town and we wont destroy it. We know they are not from here and they dont care whatever happens to our community.According to a preliminary report on the attack by the Nigeria Police Force, the multiple attacks on the APC candidate and his supporters was actually carried out by suspected PDP thugs, who went on the rampage in Ilorin and disrupted a rally being held by the opposition party without any form of provocation. The police submission is contrary to claims by Senate President Saraki and the PDP.Saraki and the ruling party had on Friday claimed that it was the APC members that were attacking his family home and supporters. But sources at the scenes of the attacks insisted the APC members came under coordinated unprovoked attacks. Just as the candidate and the people with him were attacked at Agbaji area of the town, APC supporters were attacked at two other locations in the town including Ode Alfa Nda, a source claimed.As we speak, the situation report from Kwara State Police Command was that the APC holding a governorship campaign rally at Agbaji in Ilorin came under a sudden attack by suspected PDP thugs, who disrupted the rally, damaged five vehicles and some Keke Napep and wounded two innocent people. The family house of the Senate President was not attacked as being peddled in some social media, police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, said.Last December, residents of Ilorin were shocked to wake up and see that a good number of campaign billboards in the city have been vandalised by unidentified persons. Across the city, concerned people expressed worry over what they described as the growing spate of violent actions and speeches among politicians as the 2019 election draws nearer.Reports from other parts of the state suggest that the destruction of campaign billboards and violent rhetorics among political gladiators and their supporters is not limited to the state capital alone. Sources from the southern part of the state told The Nation that community leaders in the area are currently having difficult times keeping party loyalists from physically assaulting one another.Two billboards belonging to the APC were destroyed in Offa, in the southern part of the state, by vandals suspected to be political thugs of another party. The APC and its candidates raised alarm over the matter and warned that further destruction of its billboards, allegedly by the ruling PDP of Senate President Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed, will not be condoned.The vandalised billboards were re-erected few days later in a ceremony witnessed by a mammoth crowd of party members and supporters. Party chieftains at the event alleged that the PDP is threatened by the rising popularity of the APC in the state and has vowed to unleash violence on the opposition during the forthcoming general election in the state.They know they cannot win a free and fair election and all they now plan is to use violence to scare our people, the APC Kwara South senatorial candidate, Arch. Lola Ashiru, said. Few days later, in Offa, supporters of the PDP and those of another opposition party nearly engaged themselves in a free-for-all fight but for the timely intervention of community leaders.Police, others worriedWorreid by the rising wave of violence, the Kwara State Police Command has warned residents against disrupting political rallies, promising to prosecute any person arrested. It told parties to seek police permission before embarking on campaign processions. The commands warning follows the violence unleashed on APC chieftains and supporters at a rally last Sunday.Command spokesman Ajayi Okasanmi said: The police warn political parties of the consequences of not giving the command a 48-hour notice before embarking on campaigns and processions, so as to prevent any untoward incident and prevent hoodlums from hijacking the campaigns. It is disheartening to note that despite the meetings held by the command and politicians, where security was discussed, especially the need to apply for security cover during campaigns, some parties still went about campaigns and processions without such requirements.Parties are advised to make use of the opportunity provided by the courts in enforcing any perceived judgment rather than resort to self-help in execution of such orders. The command will not watch some disgruntled politicians try to truncate the peace in the state. Parents and guardians are advised to keep watch and call their children and wards to order. Party supporters and loyalists should know that going around with firearms during campaigns is a criminal offence and the command will deal with any person or group of persons arrested. Parties still campaigning without applying for security do so at their own peril.Similarly, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Trust (PT), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has called on politicians to desist from inciting and empowering thugs while condemning all forms of violence ahead of the election. The struggle for power is not worth the life of any Kwaran or Nigerian. Kwarans have suffered enough and do not deserve to be subjected to violence. Two thousand and nineteen election is not a war of guns and bullet, but an opportunity to choose leaders that would lead the people from poverty to prosperity, Olawepo-Hashim begged.The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kwara State, Malam Garba Attahiru-Madami, also expressed concern over the recent political violence in the state. I am sad because our campaign in Kwara has become violent; in December, the news came to me that destruction of campaign billboards was rampant. Everybody, including traditional rulers and religious leaders, must speak out against violence, he said.
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