9th March, 2014
Stephen Oni/ Ilorin
An unprecedented crowd of members and supporters of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kwara state, weekend in Ilorin treated the party’s leader, Senator Bukola Saraki to a heroic welcome.
The APC members trooped out in their thousands to welcome Saraki who was visiting the state for the first time after the rally held by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state.
The crowd included traditional chiefs from Ilorin Emirate led by the Emir’s spokesman who is also the Magaji Nda of Ilorin, Alh Mohammed Salihu Woru.
Woru used the forum to restate the support of the Emirate’s chiefs for Saraki’s political leadership of the state.
The crowd of supporters, who converged on the Ilorin International Airport as early as 8 a.m, practically stopped traffic for hours on both ends of the Ilorin-Ogbomoso Road, singing and dancing with their brooms, the symbol of the APC.
Overwhelmed by the mammoth crowd, Saraki, whose plane landed at 2.00pm, decided to trek with them for a long distance,making the procession heading to the Emir’s palace to spend over two hours instead of about 20 minutes from the airport.
Saraki, whose clothes and cap were soaked in sweat, however, expressed surprise and pleasure over the reception accorded him. This, he noted, was to sound a note of caution to the opposition PDP not to toy with the APC in the state.
He said:”I think it was a reaction to the PDP rally and the kind of insinuation being made after by the state PDP.
“Kwarans just wanted to show and let Nigerians know that whatever they saw before is nothing; that this is where the structure is; it was a message, to say this is where the people of Kwara are, these are the people we associate with; it was really a clear message.”
Condemning those he described as “bill-board politicians” who only come to the state on the eve of elections, Saraki said, “today, Kwarans have shown that we have come too far to be disintegrated by nocturnal politicians who come at the eve of elections to rob us of our mandate; Kwarans have shown that irrespective of external aggression and gang-up to cause disaffection and disharmony among us, we cannot be broken.
“In the history of my usual periodic visit to Kwara, apparently, today’s arrival was extravagantly welcoming, as Kwarans came together en masse at the airport- I’m sincerely humbled,happy and confident of your support.
“Importantly, I’m very glad to have walked the roads together on our feet from the airport down to the Emir’s palace, this is the best way I can pass the weekend with my people; truly we are united, because you all turned out voluntarily from your various homes.”
Saraki, who dismissed the PDP rally in the state that was attended by President Goodluck Jonathan as insignificant and inconsequential, lamented that the president during the rally failed to make any pronouncement on federal government’s projects in the state which, according to Saraki, are non-existent.
He said instead of those in the PDP claiming to seek freedom from him, it was himself and his members who actually sought to be freed from the ineptitude of the PDP by moving en masse to the APC.