Saraki's Man Emerges As Kwara PDP Gov Candidate

Gov. Bukola Saraki.

Gov. Bukola Saraki.

Immediate past commissioner for Economic Planning under Governor Bukola Saraki’s administration Alhaji AbdulFatah Ahmed has become the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for Kwara State.

Ahmed, who was commissioner for almost seven and half years, emerged as the candidate in the early hours of yesterday at the PDP governorship primaries held at Base Ball Park in Adewole Estate, Ilorin.

At the state congress of the party which started at about 11pm on Sunday night and ended at about 3.30a.m. today, the former commissioner scored 695 votes out of a total of 743 votes to beat the other two aspirants who participated in the primary.

Hon Bashir O. Bolarinwa, who is currently a member of the House of Representatives, came a distance second with 39 votes, while Hon Yakeen Alabi could only muster nine votes.

Other governorship aspirants of PDP including the immediate past minister of sports, Hon Bio Ibrahim, former chairman Federal Character Commission, Prof Shuaib Abdulraheem and Senator Suleiman Ajadi were said to have withdrawn from the race before the commencement of the primary election.

The governor of the state, Dr Bukola Saraki who cast his vote at about 11.45p.m., expressed satisfaction with the orderly conduct of the primary, expressing optimism that PDP would emerge victorious in the April governorship poll in the state.

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However, the runner-up in the election, Hon Bashir Bolarinwa, has rejected the outcome of the primary, describing the whole exercise as a “charade.”

Bolarinwa who said that he had forwarded a petition to the national secretariat of PDP over what he termed as “irregularities in the conduct of the governorship primary,” further described the exercise as a subversion of the wish of the majority of PDP members in the state.

Said he: “the guidelines for the primary were not strictly adhered to by the electoral panel because the accreditation of delegates which is the critical issue in the exercise was done outside the venue of the congress. Worse still, the accreditation was done on behalf of the electoral panel by some agents of the powers-that-be.”

He further alleged that “as against the provision of the law guiding the conduct of the primary, most of the aspirants came to know about the venue of the primary on Sunday morning as against the stipulated seven days notice.”

By Stephen Oni/ Ilorin

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