A former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party who defected to the All Progressives Congress, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo said that he and his team of delflector to APC were poised to defeat the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki who is the political leader of the current government in Kwara State come 2019 general elections.
Akogun who alleged that Saraki leadership caused the under development of Kwara State since the past 16 years claiming that the over N1trn accruing to the state in the last
16 years went into drains.
He gave the hint that the APC in Kwara State had formed a coalition with 15 other political parties to defeat Saraki and his loyalists in 2019.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin on Saturday, Oyedepo said: “I can boast of 15 other parties are with us. As far as that is concerned, we have not less than 15 that are working with us. KOWA is with us, we are with Labour Party, PPN and many others.”
“Wherever Saraki goes, he goes with underdevelopment. He represents mis governance. He is not someone who has been known to have developed this state. I can say today that when you sit down to know the amount of money that has accrued to this state for almost 16 years now, we have even exceeded a trillion naira, when you include statutory, allocation, IGR and loans and other interventions, which the state has taken. What can you see around? Kwara State has been misgoverned for close to 16 years since 2003.”
“This State (Kwara) is more or less as he (Saraki) met it, in any case, when you see the percentage of the statutory allocation which still remains at about 75 and 80 per cent, you will see that there is no development in Kwara State. It means that wherever he (Saraki)
goes, he goes with misplaced priority, underdevelopment, unfairness in the distribution of amenities and arrogance in power.”
“Darkness and light can not co-habit. A government that is unable to give us good governance for about 16 years represents darkness. While I have been talking about party, I have laid emphasis with the personalities in government. I have never attacked Buhari, I have always been categorical about Kwara. I believe that even if we have bad governance in Nigeria, our own is more or less is a double jeopardy. We are under oppression in Kwara State, that is, we agree that there is something wrong with the national politics. We have to clear Kwara before we can face Nigeria. We are complaining about Kwara. The only issue is Bukola Saraki. We do not pretend about that.
He is an issue because this is one person that will ensure that councillors, lawmakers both state and National Assembly he is indeed the only person that will anoint them.”
“Saraki is fond of shifting. He shifted from ANPP in 2003 to PDP. In 2013, he shifted from PDP to APC, today he has shifted from APC to PDP. As far as we are concerned today only four of my executives are let behind, the Woman leader, the Deputy Chairman, the treasurer and the youth leader. Virtually all the LG chairman of our party are with us. When Bukola Saraki decided to move from APC to PDP, we believe that he by that has infiltrated the party. He has more or less provided some sort of stench that may make the party become an unwarranted instrument that can change anything in Kwara State. And necessarily because our politics is different from his own, we had to leave their party.”
Oyedepo further added: “Yes PDP said anybody coming to PDP with governor will have 60 per cent and those that have been piloting the affairs of the party for a long time will only have 40 per cent. Another obnoxious policy is that whoever decamps from APC to PDP will be giving automatic ticket. The governor decamped, even if he can no longer run any term, three senators decamped, six members of the House of Representatives decamped, 24 members of the House of Assembly decamped, 16 LG chairman decamped, if those people are to be given automatic ticket, what therefore remains for those of who have been piloting the affairs of that party for a long time. So we had to leave, but not because of that alone even if we were given all those slots and Senator Saraki will still be part of us, we have a moral burden to be with him because for a long time, we have been telling the whole world that he has not been able to govern well, infrastructure in Kwara State has collapsed, hospitals are not there, no medication and no personnel, educational institution are nothing to be proud of us, poverty is everywhere and these are the things that we have been telling the general public about the same mis-governance. Now if we have to be in the same party, with Saraki, we will have a moral burden. That explains why we believe that even if we were given 100 per cent of the slots, we still do not want him behind us because it is not going to be something we can explain to the people. Therefore we have decided to move from PDP to APC.”
He explained haven held series of meetings with the national Chairman and some top leaders of APC. E said: “We have even invited Asiwaju who is the National Leader of APC. Right now, we have been meeting with the leadership of APC to make sure that we integrate fully into the party. New congresses would soon be held and we will have full participation in it. Luckily when we came in, we could not meet any substantive executive because they were headed by Balogun-Fulani which was dissolved, we only met Caretaker Committed headed by Bashir Bolarinwa. Registration would be done probably within one week, after that, primaries will be held and leaders will emerge and everything we have, we are not losing anything, it makes the platform to be more credible because incidentally, when Saraki and the governor were leaving, many people decided not to go with them. Not less than 85 per cent of our people are following me to APC. If you had 85 per cent with the people in APC before, the party is richer now.”
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