…Decry 28 years of zone marginalisation 

The elders and stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State have again appealed to the leadership of the party at both the national and state levels to cede the governorship ticket of the ruling party to the Kwara North Senatorial District.

They reminded the APC leadership of the past sacrifices of the people of the Kwara North for the party, saying that fairness demands that one of them should be allowed to be the governor of the State come 2027.

Addressing newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital, the Chairman of the APC Elders Forum in the Kwara North, Senator Ahmed Mohammed, emphasised that if the 2027 governorship ticket slips away from the zone, by the end of the next dispensation, the exalted position would have eluded the zone for 36 years.

While restating their loyalty to the APC and its leadership, Mohammed said the purported decision of the party’s leadership to pick the gubernatorial ticket from Kwara Central “is contrary to our demands and expectations”.

“The news was further reinforced when our preferred and recommended candidate, Distinguished Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar, was reported to have collected the nomination form to return to the senate at the instance of the APC leadership, as against the collection of the governorship nomination form, as we had all expected from him.

“Our people, thereafter, have not only been feeling betrayed and disturbed by this situation but would like to state unequivocally that the development has sent shock waves and sadness to the psyche of the entire people of the Kwara North senatorial district.

“This is because it has also put asunder the existing working and zoning arrangements which we have been adopting successfully in the past on the sharing of elected offices in our senatorial district for many years.”

He added: “Flowing from the above narratives, it would not only be devastating, unfortunate, unfair and unjust to the general feelings and disposition of the people of Kwara North but would be most injurious to the unity of Kwara State, which has for many years stood on a tripod. We would therefore like to request a rethink on the party’s current position.

“Finally, as a people that have demonstrated unalloyed loyalty and patriotism to the cause and activities of the APC in the past years, especially in the unflinching support for the party affairs in our senatorial district and Kwara State at large, we are hereby, by this press conference, making passionate appeal and request to the leadership of our great party, the APC at the state and at national level, to show compassion and review the present decision by picking the Kwara APC governorship candidate for the 2027 gubernatorial election, from Kwara North Senatorial District.”