Protest In Offa Over Election Result

There were massive protests yesterday in Kwara State following the declaration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Abdulwaheed Olanipekun, as the winner of the last Saturday’s Offa Local Government rerun.

The protesters, who poured onto the major streets of Offa, the headquarters of the local government area, and Ilorin, the state capital, demanded the official results of the election.

The protests in Ilorin were led by the All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftains, including former chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the state, Comrade Sola Iji; the Campaign Director of the ACN governorship candidate in 2011, Dr Sa’ad Omoya; Otunba Iyiola Oyedepo; Mohammed Dele Belgore’s running mate, Joshua Adeyinka and Rev. Bunmi Olusona.

The peaceful rally began at 10am at the former Congress for Progressive Change’s (CPC)’s office on Offa Road.

The protestors marched through the road via Flower Garden to the late General Abdulkarim Adisa Street in the GRA. They came out at the popular Fate Road before berthing at the KWSIEC headquarters on the road.

Heavily armed riot policemen, with their Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), kept watch at the gate.

The inscriptions on some of the placards read: “We want out to collect our mandate”; “We demand justice”; “Yoo le koko lote yi”(It would be difficult this time); “Ajidagba is playing with death”; “All we are saying, give us our mandate”; “Ajidagba, ole, Barawo, thief”.

Addressing reporters, Comrade Iji said the protestors were at the KWSIEC headquarters to reject the results.

He said: “If you have been following events of Saturday till yesterday and this morning, you will discover that the local government election, which was held in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of the state, on Saturday, the results were not announced at the polling units. The results were collated at all the 12 wards. We approached the local government collation centres, where we expected that the results collated at the wards would be collated for final announcement of the winner of the election.

“Unfortunately, the Returning Officer, who is the Local Government Electoral Officer of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWSIEC), just disappeared. He absconded. We waited there till about 10pm before the materials were moved to the headquarters of KWSIEC in Ilorin that night.

“We met with the Chairman of KWSIEC, Dr Uthman Ajidagba; he feigned ignorance. He said he didn’t know where the electoral officer was and some of his junior officers. We met with the chairman and about three or four other officers of the commission. They promised that the result would be announced. They said we should return on Sunday morning by 10am. But surprisingly, by around 5am, we started hearing from Kwara Radio the same KWSIEC chairman announcing the false results.

“It was not in his place to announce any result. The results ought to be announced at the point where the collation ought to have been concluded, which is the local government headquarters of KWSIEC. So, for him to assume illegally the responsibility of the Returning Officer for the election in a local government is not acceptable.

“We have rejected the results because he knew they were not the results of the election conducted in Offa on Saturday. So, we are here to register our protest, to tell the world that KWSIEC has started on a journey it cannot foretell because our party, the APC, will not accept it.”