Kwara’s leading
politician, Olusola Saraki, has urged the electorate in the state to
vote for his daughter, Gbemisola Saraki, in the April governorship
election, just as he lamented the opposition to his daughter’s ambition
to govern the state.
He made the plea in
Ilorin on Sunday at the inauguration of the governorship campaign of
Ms. Saraki, the gubernatorial candidate of the Allied Congress Party of
Nigeria (ACPN) in Kwara.
Mr. Saraki wondered
why people he had helped into positions of authority were now
condemning him for promoting the candidacy of his daughter.
“I have always been
there for Ilorin and people of Kwara all my life. But what I am seeing,
hearing, and witnessing today are insults and abuses from all those
very junior to me in all respects.
“I don’t own more
than one three bedroom flat in Lagos and Ilorin; I only have a rented
apartment in Abuja. Yet, those now abusing me were those who have
immensely benefited from my goodwill and they now have mansions in
choice cities of the world,” he said.
Mr. Saraki said
that he was not a card-carrying member of the PDP because the party had
failed to differentiate party issues from personality issues. He said
he defected from the PDP because of alleged indiscipline within the
party.
Presenting the
ACPN’s candidates to his supporters, Mr. Saraki urged them to ensure
the party’s victory at all levels during next month’s elections.
He, however, urged
the people to refrain from actions which could foment trouble during
the elections and called on politicians to engage in issue-based
campaigns that would enrich political discourse in the state.
Earlier, Ms. Saraki
pledged to actualise her father’s vision for the state through the
implementation of purposeful programmes that would improve the state’s
development.
