‘Kwara north signed no pact with Saraki, PDP on power shift’

The Kwara North Senatorial District has dissociated itself from the purported agreement with Senate President Bukola Saraki and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the forthcoming general elections.

The zone, under the aegis of All Progressives Congress (APC) Elders, said the purported memorandum of understanding (MoU) reached with Saraki, some traditional rulers and stakeholders from the state’s north was a charade.

The ruling PDP in the state, on Sunday, announced that it had signed a pack with Kwara north to shift the governorship ticket to the zone in 2023, if the party gets the zone’s support for its candidates in this year’s general elections.

Addressing reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, leader of APC elders, Senator Ahmed Mohammed said monarchs from the zone and the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, were corralled to witness the alleged undertaking to make the pact look authentic.

Mohammed added: “The royal fathers were corralled in place as witnesses to the solemn undertaking being executed in recognition of the perceived monumental injustice suffered in the last 16 years of our political inter-relationship with the Saraki dynasty.

“Ordinarily, we would not have bothered to react to what is essentially an intra-party affair, but the presence of our royal fathers at the occasion raises some concerns among well-meaning patriotic leaders and stakeholders from the zone because of its capability to confer legitimacy on what has been widely regarded as an act of deceit, a piece of chicanery executed in duplicity and bad faith and generally borne out of desperation to cling to power by all means.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we hereby wish to state categorically that contrary to the impression that the agreement is meant to create in the public mind, the vast majority of our people are more than ever before united in purposeful determination, in concert with others across the state, to do away with bad leadership that the PDP has offered over the years.

“APC, which is the future of democracy in Kwara State, holds better opportunities for us, which, unlike the PDP, its own style will be a collective leadership, not a one-man dictatorship. We can rest assured that the principle of rotation and zoning will be the cardinal principle that everybody will observe and respect for the overall good of our dear state.

“We advise very strongly that our traditional institution should be insulated from the murky waters of politics. By bringing them to witness what is essentially an intra-party deal is, to say the least, both demeaning and despicable.

“The Kwara north joins other senatorial districts to put an end to the despotic, exploitative dynasty that has kept the state in bondage for so many years. Enough is enough.”

The senator regretted the deplorable infrastructural situation in the zone under the Saraki dynasty over the years.