Former Director, Institute of Security Studies, Mr Toyin William Akanle has emerged flagbearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the February 2015 senatorial election in Kogi West zone.
At a press briefing in Lokoja shortly after he was presented with the party’s clearance certificate, Akanle downplayed the outcome of the primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which produced the incumbent Senator Smart Adeyemi as the candidate of the ruling party, saying, indeed, “this is a new beginning”.
Akanle, it will be recalled, was a senatorial aspirant on the platform of the PDP but withdrew from the race following the consensus arrangement which produced Tolorunjuwon Joseph Faniyi as the consensus candidate of Yagba Federal Constituency. Faniyi however went on to lose to Adeyemi, who hails from Kabba/Bunu/Ijumu, in the PDP primary election held in Kabba on Sunday.
The Kogi West PDP Leadership Forum, a group of elders from Yagba and Lokoja Federal Constituencies had met and endorsed the rotation of the senatorial post to Yagba based on the existing zoning arrangement.
Akanle bemoaned the outcome of the PDP primaries alleging that the exercise was characterized by inducement and coercion. He expressed his disappointment with delegates from Yagba Federal Constituency whom he accused of selling their delegate votes to vote against zoning even when the stakeholders in Lokoja and Kotonkarfe had supported rotation of the senate seat to Yagba.
According to him, “From all observations, delegates were either coerced or induced to vote the way they did. Delegates were camped for two days in private places, not allowed to move., some were transported in the dead of the night.. If the aspirants were sure of their popularity, why the restrictions. Why did they not go round to sell themselves to the delegates in their respective electoral wards like some of us did?
I must say I respect some of our elders, especially from Lokoja and Kotonkarfe. They held to their course that it is the turn of Yagba, but, disappointingly, delegates even from East Yagba, where people from outside Yagba said it is their turn, voted for third term. Posterity will not fogive them. To me, every one that took money and voted based on money, they have sold their future and that of their children and great grand children”
He however emphasized that the general election will be different ball game.
“This is just the beginning. The PDP primaries have come and gone, but the ultimate is ahead of us. For now, let me say it is not time for jubilation in the camp of the winner of the PDP because that will be hasty. We still have a long way to g and many rivers to cross. The ball is no longer in the court of PDP. It is no longer in the court of the delegates, the ball has gone to the court of the electorate. There are 1.3 million registered voters across seven local government areas and 85 electoral wards. Less than 300 people decided the PDP primaries at Kabba. We will now go back to the people who will decide in their numbers. So if they think they have won because they won the primaries, they need to think twice”.
On the chances of the SDP, a relatively unknown party in the state, Akanle said the party’s underdog status is an advantage.
“Some of these parties you called small parties, there is sanity in them. There is internal democracy in them and that is why they are going to spring surprises. So the people are our structure, my strength lies in the people. With all the so-called PDP structure, have they not been messing up? With the APC structures, where are they? We will go to the people, we will sell ourselves to them. We will tell them what we can do”.
On the prospects of zoning and the Yagba Agenda, Akanle disagreed that the principle of rotation had been defeated. “We must not abandon zoning because it allows for peace electoral process and development in the context of our national politics. When it appears one section wants to clamp on the others, there is always a problem. So let us not assume that our people have abandoned zoning be cause of what a few set of people have done in these past few days. The primaries are nothing but charades, mirages, a make believe. The Yagba Agenda is alive. It is life that has been rekindled. In a few days it will be like wild fire. It is not going to be Yagba agenda alone but the agenda of the grassroots in the entire Kogi West Senatorial District”.
Kogi State needs awesome Prayers for Only God can save this days ugly situation. it is a pity situation!
why we cannot forgive ourselves and be much thinking of the hereafter
Your comment…why lawal momoh jimoh. can’t act like Abdullahi bello it was becus he has 76 ghost workers that he alone received their salary . and again we still allowed his family’s to stay at home until when we …