2023: Ex-Gubernatorial Candidate Supports Kwara Governor’s Re-election

A 2019 gubernatorial candidate of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP) in Kwara State, Dr Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia, has thrown his weight behind the second term ambition of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

 

Ajia, who defected to the APC before the conduct of the 2019 polls, said his vision for change was in tandem with what the ruling party stood for in the last general elections, hence his resolve to leave his former political party.

 

Addressing a media briefing in Ilorin, the erstwhile gubernatorial flag-bearer said that his decision to join forces with the APC back then was devoid of monetary inducement as alleged in some quarters.

 

Desire of the people

Ajia clarified that his defection to the ruling party in 2019 was anchored on change, which was the desire of the people of the state.

 

He said that Kwara was better off in the hand of the APC and had moved forward from where the immediate past administration left it.

 

“Up till today, I’m still a member of the APC and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is the gubernatorial candidate of the APC. Then, I’m obligated to support him. Tomorrow, if I’m no longer a member of the APC, then that obligation does not exist. As long as we are in the same political party, he, the governor has my vote and my support.

 

“The APC government in Kwara State has done very well; it has moved Kwara forward from where the former Governor left it but we still have a lot of work to do. A lot of our campaign promises need to be revisited and we need to do better. Definitely, we are better off with the APC compared to where the former administration left us,” he declared.

 

He encouraged politicians to pursue other careers and have a trade rather than being idle or jump from one occasion to another.

 

He said the party was faced with the choice of either retaining the status quo or moving forward with the change and that he was with the vision for change which has continued up till now.

 

Ajia said after making his case for the people of Kwara, it became obvious that the other alternative was to support the other opposition that had the momentum, which was now the executive Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.

He explained that there was no monetary inducement between himself and the governor of Kwara.

 

“But I am ready to face anyone at any time, at any place to defend myself, to say that I’m contended with what Allah has done for me, that I’m not interested in anyone’s money; they don’t have enough money to buy me, that my conscience cannot be bought, that the reason why they came into the political process is different from the reason why I came.

 

According to him, he was only a concerned citizen who refused to see from the sidelines.

 

“Go and ask the Governor; he is on Ahmadu Bello Way (Ilorin). That I said that I never collected anything from him. I never asked him for anything.

 

He added that he did what he had to do because he believed there was need for change in Kwara State.

 

 

Lateefah Ibrahim