As states speed up the process to conduct local government elections following the July 11 Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to the councils, BIOLA AZEEZ writes on issues trailing the election held in Kwara State.
Local government election was last held in Kwara State by the Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed-led Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration in November 2017. That was seven years after another one was conducted on September 21, 2024 by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. On assumption of office in 2019, Governor Abdulrazaq had dissolved the elected chairmen in all the 16 local government areas of the state, while he appointed Transition Committee Chairmen (TIC) until the conduct of the September poll.
Some stakeholders said that the conduct of the election, which witnessed a large turnout of voters, was peaceful and orderly, while the opposition PDP alleged that there were irregularities. The chairman of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC), Mohammed Baba-Okanla, in the early hours of September 22, declared the results of the election, affirming victory for all the chairmanship and councilorship candidates of the ruling APC. Indeed, the outcome of the poll elicited widespread mixed feelings as members of the APC, particularly, friends and well-wishers of the candidates in the election, embarked on celebration, while protest against the result was witnessed in Ilorin and Offa towns by aggrieved members of the opposition PDP. For instance, the chairmanship candidate of the PDP in the Offa local government area, Honourable Salaudeen Lukman, accused KWASIEC of poor performance in the election and asked that the poll should be rescheduled in Offa. Lukman, on behalf of 12 PDP ward councilorship candidates, said the election was marred “by irregularities, with no votes cast, counted, or announced in Offa.” The PDP candidates called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take immediate action and accused the state government culpable for alleged electoral misconduct. “To maintain peace and ensure the credibiity of our democratic process, we demand the immediate rescheduling of the Offa Local Government election,” the candidates said. While urging Offa residents to remain calm and law-abiding, the aggrieved candidates promised to take a legal action to correct what was described as injustice.
However, the state electoral commission countered the claim of malfeasances. Its chairman, Mr. Mohammed Baba-Okanla, said that the election did not record any major hiccup and thanked the people for trooping out to exercise their franchise. The KWASIEC boss said that the electoral process across the 16 Local Government Areas and 193 wards, witnessed the participation of five political parties: APC, the Allied Peoples Movement (APM0, PDP, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Accord. He shared the results as filed by the electoral officers and returning officers from the fields, saying that, “After meticulous collation and verification, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged victorious in all categories. Specifically, the APC has won all 16 Local Government Area chairmanship positions. The party has also secured all 193 councilorship seats. We commend political parties for their commitment to a peaceful election, which did not record any major casualty and the people of Kwara State for coming out en masse to exercise their civic rights.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the APC in the state, Prince Sunday Fagbemi and Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, among other stalwarts of the ruling party, hailed the conduct of the election and the result, describing it as triumph of democracy. Fagbemi, in a statement, also hailed the outcome of the poll and acknowledged what he considered as the resolve of the people to reinforce their trust in the APC. The chairman attributed the victory to development projects executed by the administration of Governor Abdulrazaq, coupled with his commitment to sustaining development across the state.
Similarly, the governor congratulated all the 16 LG chairpersons and 193 councillors “on their deserving victories.” Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Rafiu Ajakaye, the governor also congratulated all the leaders and members of the APC on the successful outing at the election, which he linked to the great strides of the government, the support of every party member and stakeholders, as well as sustained relationships that the party has built with the people. Governor Abdulrazaq commended state electoral body and the security agencies “for the peaceful and hugely successful exercise.” He said he was confident that insights and experiences from the exercise will help to improve future elections in the state and across the country, especially that leadership of other states’ electoral commissions.
Also, the Special Adviser to Governor Abdulrazaq on Political Matters, who is an indigene of Offa town, Mr Femi Agbaje, said that the local government election was conducted in the town, adding that those who were interested did exercise their franchise right. “Traditionally, Offa is an APC town. Therefore, the people will not be so docile and vote for another party. “Ab initio, PDP did not want the election to hold, that was why it went to court seeking for the stoppage of the election,” Mr Agbaje added. Corroborating Agbaje, the APC chairman-elect, Sulaiman Olatunji, said PDP was not prepared for the election, adding that, “APC prepared (for the election) and we won.” On his part, the Kwara State Police command said that the LG election was peacefully conducted. In a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Toun Ejire-Adeyemi, the command said that the feat was achieved in collaboration with other security agencies.
However, the PDP, while rejecting results of the election, called for rescheduling of the election in Offa. The PDP members staged a protest against the results declared by KWASIEC and made bonfire at strategic locations on Fate road before the protesters stormed Zango/Maraba road to the General Post office and Challenge areas of the Ilorin metropolis, carrying placards with different inscriptions condemning the result announced by KWASIEC. A few of the placards read: Kwara people say no to continuation of bad governance led by APC; LG Election results declared by KWASIEC is fake; Govt, KWASIEC changed the results of the election in favour of APC; KWASIEC rob PDP in Kwara LG Elections.
A former Commissioner in the state, Hajia Saratu Adebayo, who led the protest, accused KWASIEC of forging the result of the election. He claimed: “PDP won the chairmanship election in the 16 local government areas of the state but was falsely awarded to APC by KWASIEC.” In the same vein, the PDP in Kwara rejected the result, describing it as a desecration of democracy. The party accused the APC of colluding with KWSIEC to manipulate the election and subvert the people’s will. The party, in a statement issued on September 23 in Ilorin, called for immediate cancellation of the election and conduct of a fresh poll, otherwise the PDP it will explore legal means to restore what it called the stolen mandate of the people.
It, however, called for a properly constituted tribunal to be headed by a judge of the high court, as required by the law, rejecting the one set up by the Abdulrazaq administration for falling short of constitutional stipulation. In the statement titled: “Desecration of Democracy during the September 21 Kwara State Local Government Elections”, and signed by its state publicity secretary, Olusegun Olusola Adewara, Kwara PDP berated KWSIEC for allegedly allowing itself to be used in the conduct of the election. The statement read: “The crude manner in which the ruling APC government, in connivance with the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWSIEC), usurped the people’s mandate to elect their local leaders has left Kwarans frustrated and aggrieved. KWSIEC’s actions on election day not only fell short of the minimum standards expected of an election umpire but also openly facilitated and participated in the desecration of democracy that occurred across Kwara state”.
The PDP said contrary to the declaration by KWSIEC that the APC won, the PDP won in the few areas where the election was held, “but it was cancelled, and officials were forced to announce the APC candidates as the winners. The party, which thanked its members, supporters and the people of Kwara for coming out in large numbers to vote, called for a fresh election to avoid a legal intervention. Also, the national leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Bukola Saraki, as well as chairmanship candidates in the LG election in Kwara,, Musbau Esinrogunjo and Ismail Muhammed, also vowed to pursue legal action against the state electoral commission exercise. Esinrogunjo contested for the Ilorin West local government while Muhammed vied for the Ilorin East local government.
Mr Esinrogunjo, who alleged that the poll was characterised by irregularities, added “yet, the people of Ilorin West LGA, known for their integrity and gallantry, stood their ground and voted for us massively across all the polling units and electoral wards.” He, however, appealed to the populace to remain calm and peaceful, saying that, “we shall do everything legally possible to defend the mandate you gave to me and reclaim it in due course.” Esinrogunjo, who alleged the subversion of the will of the people at the poll, added: “The result of the councillors were supposed to be announced at Ward collations Centre, while the result of the chairman was supposed to be announced at the local government secretariat which is the collation centre, but, unfortunately, it was not so.”
Also, Mohammed of Ilorin South LG assured that all PDP candidates would explore legal means to press for their mandates, just as the Saraki’s Press Officer on Political Matters, Abdulganiyu Abdulqadir, said in a statement that the former president of the Senate president said that the people had sent a signal of rejection to the (APC) administration with their large turnout for the poll. “In a manner that went beyond partisan consideration and gave expression to the protection of community interests, people from Kwara mobilised themselves to the polling units and met the absence of electoral officials and shoddy preparations by the electoral body. Yet, the people stood firm against the deliberately concocted frustrations. In some areas, the votes were heavily stacked against APC candidates. In other areas, the voters stood against a system in which less than ten percent of the ballot papers were supplied to polling units for the huge number of accredited voters with no result sheets supplied, among other inadequacies,” he said.
However, the chairman of KWSIEC, Mohammed Baba-Okanla, in a telephone interview, argued that the election was free and fair, describing it as a triumph of democracy. Baba-Okanla advised the aggrieved politicians to approach courts to seek redress.
“The people of Kwara State deserve to be praised for demonstrating how politically savvy, sophisticated, and discerning they are. I join numerous Kwarans to thank and commend the various political parties, community development associations, youth groups, religious bodies, and others who form the core of the democratic action that we witnessed on Saturday.”
The government, through the state commissioner for Communications, Bola Olukoju, quickly responded to the PDP national leader’s statement, saying that Saraki lacks credibility to speak on people’s welfare. The government described as laughable and self-flattery the comments of Senator Bukola Saraki on the outcome of the recent local government elections in the state, which the ruling All Progressive Party (APC) said they convincingly won across the state. It claimed that Saraki’s PDP not only tried to no avail to frustrate the conduct of the election through the court, but it allegedly mobilised people. “It took the popular will of the people to cast their ballot. The government has done well enough to win the trust of the people, and that was what played out, regardless of the noise from Saraki’s men. It is bewildering that Saraki’s party is confused between floating the narrative that no election took place and claiming a victory from an election it said was never held. That is the lot of a confused, desperate people that Senator Saraki leads,” according to a statement by the Honourable Commissioner for Communications Mrs Bola Olukoju. As far as people’s welfare is concerned, Saraki lacks the moral standing to talk. In addition to the efforts of President Tinubu to ease things, not only is the Kwara State government committed to public welfare, as is evident in its many programmes, it continues to execute different infrastructural projects and social protection programmes that strengthen the purchasing powers of the people. The government is also not denying people their wages while its appointees enjoy the perks of office, like others before them”.
While the war of words rages between the two main parties, many observers say the dust occasioned by the conduct and result of the Kwara LG poll may linger some time because of the spirited moves by the aggrieved camps to explore legitimate and legal means to seek redress. Who blinks first? Time will tell.
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