AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq

NEWS

Kwara 2019: Abdulrasaq Visit Victims, Condemn Ban On Street Rallies

The gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State, Abdulrahaman Abdulrazaq, Tuesday, condemned the ban on political rallies and processions in the state by Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed.

Abdulrazaq, who visited his party supporters who were shot and brutalized by thugs loyal to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state
called on police to fish out the the perpetrators.

His words: “They started by attacking our rallies, we have held many rallies and there have not been violence in any of the rallies, but the moment we stepped out to campaign, they attacked us. We launch our billboards but they bring them down.”

“It’s not about APC candidate any more, it’s a movement to bring Kwara back after 16 years of stealing, they stole our resources, they have turned Kwara state into an ATM, they steal money, all you need to do is, look at evidence presented at the code of conduct tribunal to see where our monies have gone.”

Reacting to the governor’s ban on rallies and procession, he said, “They don’t want us to get there but we’ll get there by the grace of God. In a democratic setting, how can they ban a rally. We are victims of violence here we are victims of their violence and it must stopped.”

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POLITICS

Threat Of Violence Won’t Suppress Yearnings For Change In Kwara, Says AbdulRazaq

Kwara APC governorship candidate AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Monday said no threat of violence can suppress the resolve of the people to turn the page on the current political status quo in the state.

AbdulRazaq told a news briefing in the state capital Ilorin that Sunday’s attack was the fourth targeted at him since his convoy was attacked by gunmen last November in Kwara South when he led a campaign for the rerun ballot in irepodun/Isin/Oke Ero/Ekiti federal constitution which the APC won.

The briefing was attended by the APC’s Kwara Central senatorial candidate Ibrahim Oloriegbe; top APC chieftain Yahaya Seriki; and hundreds of other party stalwarts. 

He said the second was the disruption — reportedly by loyalists of the senate president Bukola Saraki — of the Ilorin Emirate Descendant Progressive Union (IEDPU) programme when it was his turn to address the community gathering. 

“You can’t impose your will on the people. What you have are a people clutching at straws. They are drowning men and they are on their way out. They have no answers to the agitation going on in the state,” AbdulRazaq said.

“Ilorin has changed. Kwara has changed. People are tired. There were major defections to our party just yesterday in Kaiama. People want a breath of fresh air and their response to that is violence. We won’t join them to encourage violence. We will keep on reporting them to the appropriate authorities because this is our town and we won’t destroy it. We know they are not from here and they don’t care whatever happens to our community.”

He also said people are tired of electing a governor who would always be at the mercy of their godfather, saying the incumbent cannot take any decision on Kwara except such decisions enjoy the backing of his godfather — a veiled reference the to mentor-mentee relationship of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed and Saraki. 

He added: “The last time they came, they brought Fatah Ahmed. But we know he’s not an executive governor. He couldn’t tar a single road in Ifelodun local government where he comes from. So, why do you expect the one they are bringing now to do any better? There is a lot of work to be done in Kwara. They asked them about the minimum wage and they said they will and even pay more. These are people who haven’t paid salary for many months. Mind you, people have not noticed that last year’s budget was N190b; this year’s budget is N150b. if you cannot pay salary with N190b, how can you pay salary with N150b? they are not here to do anything. They just want the perks of office. We have to get them out because enough is enough.”

Ibrahim Oloriegbe, for his part, said one APC member — AbdulRasheed Oloduowo — was shot dead while several others were injured as suspected PDP thugs attacked a rally of the APC at Ode Alfa Nda in the state capital. He said over 50 vehicles belonging to APC chieftains were destroyed in the area, including at Agbaji, the homestead of Saraki.

Identifying and calling for immediate arrest of thugs he claimed were working for the senate president, Oloriegbe recalled that similar violence was unleashed on Kwarans in 2003 during Saraki’s campaigns for the office of governor.

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POLITICS

Kwara APC Governorship Candidate Escapes Assassination

Kwara APC governorship candidate AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq on Sunday escaped death by the whiskers as suspected PDP thugs fired at a rally he was attending at Ode Alfa Nda area of the state capital.

AbdulRazaq, who had on Saturday begun a daring door-to-door mobilisation of voters in Ilorin, was quickly whisked away from the rally as thousands of party supporters also scampered for safety. Two persons were seriously injured by gunshots fired by the thugs at the rally and have since been taken to the hospital.

The violence occurred almost simultaneously with similar attacks on APC supporters in Ile Aiyelabegan, a household that is a spit distance from the Agbaji homestead of the Senate President Bukola Saraki.

“We condemn this brazen resort to violence. This is getting out of hand. Nigerians are urged to prevail on the Senate president to prevail on his party thugs and stalwarts to give peace a chance in Kwara. There is life after politics,” Rafiu Ajakaye, media aide to the AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq campaign organisation, said in a statement.

“We call on all the security agencies to buckle down and tame the monsters who are now terrorising everybody in not just Ilorin but everywhere in Kwara where people express their desire for freedom and life more abundant.”

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POLITICS

Ilorin Stands Still As APC’s AbdulRahman Leads Pro-Buhari Rally

Tens thousands of Kwara APC members and supporters placed Ilorin on a lock down for hours on Thursday as the party’s governorship candidate AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq led other candidates to mobilise voters ahead of the general election.

The rally saw thousands of locals lining the streets and mobbing the long motorcade and heavy trucks conveying the APC campaigners amid deafening shouts of O To Ge, the campaign slogan of the party which means ‘enough is enough’. The rally was also dominated by shouts of Sai Buhari. 

The campaign train took off from Fate end of the capital city and criss-crossed densely populated areas like Pata market, Gambari,  Okelele,  Abayawo, Omoda and peaked at Pakata where the candidates took turns to address the masses. 

“We are committed to end the tyranny in our state. O To Ge. We will ensure workers are paid their dues at the right time. A government that cannot account for trillions of naira of public funds cannot expect to be trusted again,” AbdulRazaq told the rally.

AbdulRazaq also laughed off a recent claim by Senate President that APC wants to make Kwara a part of the West,  dismissing it as the antic of drowning politicians hanging to any straw.

“If West means Tinubu, Bukola took Kwara to the west in 2015 when (Bola) Tinubu was leader of APC,” AbdulRazaq said.

“Their desperate attempt to incite the public against us has failed. Every student of history understands the role my father AGF AbdulRazaq SAN played in 1955 to convince the Willinks Commission on Minorities that Ilorin belonged to the northern region. Where was Saraki in those years?  Where is his sense of history?”

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POLITICS

Kwara 2019: Bother About Your Baggage, APC’s AbdulRahman Tells PDP

Kwara APC governorship candidate AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has asked the state chapter of the PDP to bother itself about its abysmal performance and mass rejection of its ‘puppet-candidates’ by Kwarans rather than busy spreading fake news about his own popular candidacy.

“Like its national chapter which has made lies and fake news its campaign policy, the Kwara State chapter of the PDP has been going around claiming that the APC has no governorship candidate in the state,” a statement by AbdulRazaq’s media aide, Rafiu Ajakaye, quoted him as saying.  

“Of course,  everybody knows this is a desperate attempt by the Kwara PDP to take attention away from its baggage and abysmal showings in the past 16 years. Every Kwaran home and abroad has keyed into the Otoge tsunami that is waiting to consume the unproductive, parasitic and rapacious political fiefdom in the state. Every Kwaran knows that behind the Otoge phenomenon is the fine gentleman AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq who the INEC has affirmed as the governorship candidate of the APC in Kwara State.

“Kwara PDP’s adoption of grand deceit, fake news and blackmail as campaign policy only shows that it is so ashamed of its own record of underdevelopment, corruption and stone-age politics of ‘mi-fun-e’ (I dash you) that it has resorted to claiming that there is no one contesting against its controversial candidate in the hope that the people of Kwara will give up (on) their unprecedented resolve to vote out the party in March. This tactic has failed as the mood across the state clearly shows. 

“Rather than waste time spreading lies and mischief, we urge the PDP to concentrate on the legal consequences of fielding candidates with records of forgery, perjury and additional baggage of being lifetime stooges to some stone-age emperor who sees Kwara and Kwarans as their inheritance. We urge the PDP to bother more about its many baggages and think about life outside government from May 29, 2019!”

That comes as Kola, the scion of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential ballot Moshood Abiola, said AbdulRazaq’s candidacy offered Kwara the best shot to get people-oriented development and true business investments.
Kola Abiola said this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, when he visited the APC governorship candidate at his home. 

He praised Kwarans for their support for the #Otoge movement, saying AbdulRazaq was the face of the state’s struggle for freedom from political servitude.

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