Monday 2 September 2013

APC members storm Offa streets in protest

Scores of protesters, who are members of All
Progressive Congress (APC) stormed the streets of
Offa and Ilorin Monday demanding for their
mandate allegedly stolen by the PDP. It would be recalled that KWASIEC declared
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
candidate, Abdulwaheed Olanipekun as the
winner of the office of the chairman with all the
councillors in the last Saturday local government
election rerun in Offa. The protestors who poured to the major streets of
Offa, headquarters of Offa local government area
and Ilorin, the Kwara state capital demanded for
the official results of the election. Speaking with reporters, Comrade Iji said the
protestors had come to the KWSIEC headquarters
to register their rejection of the results. According to him, “If you have been following
events of Saturday up till yesterday and this
morning, you will discover that the local
government election that was held in Offa, Offa
local government area of the state on Saturday;
the results were announced at the polling units; the results were collated in all the twelve wards. And we approached the local government
collation centres where we expected that the
results collated at the wards would be collated for
final announcement of the winner of the
election”. “Unfortunately, the returning officer who is the
local government electoral officer of the Kwara
state Independent Electoral Commission (KWSIEC)
just disappeared. He absconded and we waited
there till about 10pm before the materials were
moved to the headquarters of KWSIEC here in Ilorin that night. “We met with the Chairman of KWSIEC, Dr Uthman
Ajidagba, he feigned ignorance. He said he didn’t
know where the electoral officer was and some of
his junior officers. We met with the chairman and
about three or four other officers of the
commission and they promised that the result would be announced. They said we should return on Sunday morning
by 10am, but surprisingly by around 5am we
started hearing from Kwara Radio, the same
KWSIEC chairman announcing the false results. “It
was not in his place to announce any results. The results ought to be announced at the point
where the collation ought to have been
concluded, which is the local government
headquarters of KWSIEC. So for him to assume
illegally the responsibility of the returning officer
for the election in a local government is not acceptable. We have rejected results because he knew that
was not the results of the election conducted in
Offa on Saturday. So we are here register our
protest to tell the whole world that KWSIEC has
started on a journey it cannot foretell because our
party, All Progressives Congress will not accept it. “We know that we have won and that is why we
are here peacefully to register our protest,
unfortunately they have told us that the man is
not in the office. He is supposed to be in the
office, he is a civil servant, he ought to be here, he
is not here. They have not told us of any ceremony that he is engaging in. “If he is engaging in any ceremony we will move
there to register our protest before everybody. As
far as we are concerned this result has not been
announced. We want him to give us the official
results of the election and we should be there
when the collation will be concluded that is why we are here.” The protests in Ilorin were led by the All
Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains. The APC
chieftains at the protests include, former chair,
Caretaker Committee of the former Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the state, Comrade
Sola Iji, campaign director of the governorship candidate of ACN in 2011, Dr Sa’ad Omoya,
Otunba Iyiola Oyedepo, Mohammed Dele
Belgore’s running mate, Joshua Adeyinka, Rev
Bunmi Olusona among others. The peaceful rally commenced around 10am at
the former Congress for Progressive Change (CPC)’s
office, Offa road, Ilorin. The protestors marched through Offa road via
Flower Garden area to late General Abdulkarim
Adisa street in GRA and burst out at the popular
Fate road before finally berthing at the KWSIEC
headquarters in the road. Heavily armed anti riot policemen with their
Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) mounted sentry
at the gate to prevent breakdown of law and
order. Inscriptions in some of the placards read: ‘We
want out to collect our mandate’; ‘we demand for
justice’; ‘Yio le koko lote yi’; ‘Ajidagba is playing
with death’; ‘All we are saying, give us our
mandate’; ‘Ajidagba, ole, Barawo, thief.’

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