The Elders and Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, has again appealed to the leadership of the party at the national and state levels to cede the governorship ticket of the ruling party to the north district zone.
They reminded the APC leadership of the past sacrifices by the people of Kwara North for the party, saying that fairness demands that one of them should be allowed to be governor come 2027.
Addressing newsmen in Ilorin, the state capital, the chairman of the APC Elders Forum in Kwara north, Senator Ahmed Mohammed, emphasised that if the 2027 governorship ticket slips away from the zone, by the end of the next dispensation, the exalted position would have eluded the zone for another 36 years.
While restating their loyalty to the APC and its leadership, Mohammed said the purported decision of the party’s leadership to pick the gubernatorial ticket from Kwara Central “is contrary to our demands and expectations.”
“The news was further reinforced when our preferred and recommended candidate, Distingushed Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar was reported to have collected the nomination form to return to the senate at the instance of the APC leadership, as against the collection of governorship nomination form, like we have all expected from him.
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“Our people, thereafter, have not only been feeling betrayed and disturbed by this situation but would like to state unequivocally that the development has sent shock waves and sadness to the physics of the entire people of Kwara north senatorial district.
“This is because it has also put asunder, the existing working and zoning arrangements which we have been adopting successfully in the past on the sharing of elected offices in our senatorial district for many years.”
He added: “Flowing from the above narratives, it would not only be devastating, unfortunate, unfair and unjust to the general feelings and disposition of the people of Kwara north but would be most injurious to the unity of Kwara State, which has for many years stood on a tripod. We would therefore like to request for a rethink on the party’s current position.
“Finally, as a people that have demonstrated unalloyed loyalty and patriotism to the cause and activities of the APC in the past years, especially in the unflinching support for the party affairs in our senatorial district and Kwara State at large, we are hereby, by this press conference, making passionate appeal and request to the leadership of our great party, the APC at the state and at national level, to show compassion and review the present decision by picking the Kwara APC governorship candidate for the 2027 gubernatorial election from Kwara north senatorial district.”
