A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and former Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Prof. Ali Ahmad, has expressed optimism that his party would triumph at the ongoing Local Government election tribunal sitting in Ilorin, the state capital, adding that “The tribunal will recover our party’s stolen mandate by the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC)”.
The former Speaker, who stated this while addressing journalists on proceedings at the Local Government election petition tribunal, said: “The just concluded local government poll supervised in Kwara by the officials of Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWSIEC) was a daylight robbery and a flagrant display of illegalities.”
According to the legal luminary,
“the PDP chairmanship candidate for Ilorin South LGA, Hon. Muhammed Ayodeji Ismail and other petitioners won the election, but were defrauded.”
Recall that the local government election in Kwara State was conducted on September 21, 2024.
However, the lead petitioner, Hon. Ismail Ayodeji and four other members of the PDP in the State had filed petition against the credibility of the poll, asking the tribunal to critically look into the issue in the interest of justice.
“We’re in the court today for our Chairmanship candidate petition, and our witnesses are in the court also. We’re hopeful that we’ll get back our mandate for Ilorin South Local Government.
“The matter is for pre-trial conferences. There are preliminary objections. We know the will of justice is slow, but ultimately, it will catch up.
“We’re hopeful that with the industries our lawyers are showing, the electoral tribunal will recover our chairmanship candidate mandate, which was taken away at first.
“The suit before the court is challenging the fraud and the daylight robbery that took place on the September 21st election day.
“How do you announce the results from the government house? I believe the proper procedure is that the results should be announced from the polling units, ward collation centres, and to the state collation point, but such never happened.
“For Ilorin South seat, we’re not leaving this mandate unchallenged. We are taking it back with the firm instrument of the law,” the former Speaker said.
Also reacting to the development, the lead counsel to the petitioners, Barr. Bola Rasaq Gold, SAN, confirmed that the “major business of the court was for pre-trial conferences today”.
He added that various days have been picked for the continuation of the matter, optimistic that his clients would come out victorious in the case.
