Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Kawu Baraje has said the people of Kwara State, especially the Ilorin indigenes would resist attempt to cede the state to the Yoruba-dominated Western part of the state in next month’s governorship election.
He said the adoption of campaign slogan, Otoge (which literally means enough is enough in Yoruba dialect) by the candidate of the All progressives Congress, APC, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, was a subtle attempt to surrender the state to a one-man rule in the South-West, saying the slogan cannot win an election.
According to him, those behind the present move were few “disgruntled and misguided” individuals who have no people behind them.
Speaking with Daily Trust in Lagos, the PDP chieftain recalled that there had been such attempt to hijack Kwara from the North in 1954 and the conspiracy failed.
Baraje maintained confidence in the capacity of the PDP to coast to victory in the 2019 election, saying the people are behind the leadership of the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki.
He said, “What wins election are the voters and electorate themselves. As far we are concerned, it is not strange to us and it is not strange to any community particularly Ilorin. In 1954, there was a similar attempt to cede Ilorin to the western and the southern part of Nigeria and the parlance that time was that awa Olo West (we are going to the west) and there was an opposite parlance (we are not going to the West).”
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