Some supporters of Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara State have blamed the party’s crushing defeat by the All Progressives Congress in the Saturday’s elections on the lack of unity among its political stalwarts in the state.
APC cleared all the three senatorial districts and six federal constituencies in the state. Its presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), also polled 302,146 votes to beat the PDP candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, to a distant second with 132,602 votes.
Some of the PDP leaders in Kwara State include a governorship candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, Dele Belgore (SAN); a former Chairman, Federal Character Commission, Prof. Oba Abdulraheem; Sen. Gbemisola Saraki; the Minister for National Planning, Dr. Sulaiman Abubakar; and the party’s governorship candidate, Senator Simeon Ajibola.
Except, Abubakar, they all contested the PDP governorship primaries.
Most of the party members, who spoke with our correspondent on Tuesday in Ilorin, acknowledged that the exercise was to a large extent, free, fair and peaceful.
A supporter, Suleiman Mohammed, believed that the disagreement among the leaders was responsible for the party’s defeat, arguing though that there were irregularities in the conduct of the poll in some parts of the state.
“The disagreement among party elders mainly caused the party’s flop. It started before the party’s primaries and became tough after the governorship candidate emerged. It was not properly resolved up to the time of the elections,” he said.
Another PDP member, Tunji Ajanaku, described the elections as peaceful, adding that the party would address its challenges before the April 11 governorship and state House of Assembly elections.
He said, “The process has been peaceful. The results have been announced and they are fairly satisfactory. What we have seen are figures; there may be issues, although, there was none in my area. PDP is still very strong.
“We will go back to the drawing board, restrategise and rebuild the party. The party has gone through a lot of challenges but we are going to come out stronger.”
A supporter in Asa Local Government Area, Lukman Ajasa, said the party leaders failed to ‘adequately’ mobilise people, adding that the elections were not rigged.
“Our leaders are interested mainly in their pockets alone. There are a number of voters who can only be convinced with money and some other inducements; but instead of them (the leaders) to do so, they kept posing us even though they were given money by the party to distribute.
“APC took the advantage and won. There was nothing like rigging,” he said.
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