Layi Olanrewaju, Ilorin

Kwara North senatorial district yesterday dissociated itself from the reported agreement with Senate President Bukola Saraki and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming general election in the state.

The zone, under the aegis of All Progressives Congress (APC) Elders, said the purported MoU between Saraki, traditional rulers and stakeholders from Kwara North was a charade.

The PDP in the state, on Sunday, announced that it had signed a pack with the Kwara North to rotate the governorship position to the zone in 2023 as the basis of securing their support for PDP candidates in this year’s elections.

Addressing reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, leader of the APC Elders, Senator Ahmed Mohammed, said traditional rulers from the zone and the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, were corralled to witness the alleged undertaking to invest the pact with authenticity.

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Mohammed added that: “The royal fathers were corralled in place as witnesses to the solemn undertaking being executed in recognition of the perceived monumental injustice suffered in the last 16 years of our political inter-relationship with the Saraki dynasty.

“Ordinarily, we would not have bothered to react to what is essentially an intra-party affair, but the presence of our royal fathers at the occasion raises some concerns among well-meaning, patriotic leaders and stakeholders from the zone because of its capability to confer legitimacy on what has been widely regarded as an act of deceit, a piece of chicanery executed in duplicity and bad faith and generally borne out of desperation to cling to power by all means.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we hereby wish to state categorically that, contrary to the impression that the agreement is meant to create in the public mind, the vast majority of our people are more than ever before united in purposeful determination, in concert with others across the state, to do away with bad leadership that the PDP has offered over the years.

“APC, which is the future of democracy in Kwara State, holds better opportunities for us, which, unlike the PDP, will be a collective leadership, not a one-man dictatorship. We can be rest assured that the principle of rotation and zoning will be the cardinal principle that everybody will observe and respect for the overall good of our dear state.”