Former PDP chairman Abubakar Baraje says Kwara will never accept a Yoruba governor

FORMER Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman Alhaji Abubakar Baraje has vowed that the people of Kwara State would bitterly resist any attempt to foist a Yoruba-speaking governor on the state in next month's gubernatorial elections.

Kwara State will be one of the key battleground state's ion both this month's presidential elections and the March 3 gubernatorial poll. With the contest too close to call, both the PDP and the All progressives Congress (APC), know that Kwara State will be a key determinant of their fortunes nationally.

Things are particularly volatile given the fact that senate president Senator Bukola Saraki is the lawmaker representing the Kwara Central Senatorial District. Last year, Senator Saraki left the APC and joined the PDP, taking Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed with him, making the battle for the state an open contest between both parties.

Alhaji Baraje has now turned up the heat further, saying that the people of Kwara State, especially the Ilorin indigenes would resist attempt to cede the state to the Yoruba-dominated Western part of the state. He said the adoption of campaign slogan, Otoge, which translates to enough is enough in Yoruba by the APC candidate of Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, was a subtle attempt to surrender the state to a one-man rule, saying the slogan cannot win an election.

According to Alhaji Baraje, those behind the present move were few disgruntled and misguided individuals who have no people behind them. He recalled that there had been several such attempts to hijack Kwara State from the north in 1954 and the conspiracy failed.

Alhaji Baraje maintained confidence in the capacity of the PDP to coast to victory in the 2019 election, saying the people are behind the leadership Senator Saraki. He said: “What wins election are the voters and electorate themselves.

"As far we are concerned, it is not strange to us and it is not strange to any community particularly Ilorin. In 1954, there was a similar attempt to cede Ilorin to the western and the southern part of Nigeria and the parlance that time was that awa nlo West (we are going to the west) and there was an opposite parlance saying we are not going to the West).”