2023: Kwara APC deeply fragmented to clearly win guber election

A prominent chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Kwara State, Lasisi Ayinla Kolawole Jimoh, has said the ruling APC government in the state is too fragmented to win the 2023 re-election of its gubernatorial candidate.

In a chat with NAIJAGAZETTE in Ilorin on Wednesday, the elder statesman blamed the fragmentation of the party on the crisis which hit the party shortly after its victory in the 2019 gubernatorial election in the area with the incumbent Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq emerging winner.

He described the development as worrisome and a big problem which could be mended with sincerity of purpose by the leadership.

Jimoh said four former aggrieved members of the APC are now gubernatorial candidates on different political party platforms,” it is a big minus to the APC, knowing full well that they have formidable followers in the state.

The four former aggrieved members of the party now contesting the gubernatorial election on different platforms include Yaman Shuaib Abdullahi, of the PDP, Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraheem, of the NNPP, Waziri Yakubu Gobir, of the YPP and Hakeem Lawal, of the SDP.

Jimoh, a former gubernatorial candidate of the defunct Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP, said the four aggrieved members played prominent roles and worked very hard to ensure the party’s victory in the 2019 elections but were frustrated out of the party.

The advocate of ‘Oto ge’ said their defection to other parties has seriously depleted the APC, with serious implications for the ruling APC in the state in 2023.

“The net looser is the APC, the party is shedding weight, non of them is bringing anything to APC now, today they are against themselves,” he noted.

Jimoh, however, suggested that the way forward is for all aggrieved members to “swallow their pride in the overall interest of the party and the state,” adding “you can stoop to conquer.”