‘No room for APC in Kwara South’

A group, the ‘Kwara South G70,’ has said it will give 70,000 votes to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the elections.

The group directed its members, numbering about 700, to garner 10,000 votes from each of the seven local government areas of Kwara South Senatorial District.

The Coordinator, Kwara South G70, Salahudeen Lukman, spoke in Ajase-Ipo, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, during the inauguration of G70 neighbour-to-neighbour campaign volunteers.

Lukman said the team was specifically set up to mobilise support for the re-election of Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim, who he said, had surpassed the achievements of his predecessors in Kwara South.

He said the group had taken stock of the representation of the legislator in the upper chamber of the National Assembly with a verdict that failure to return him in the February 16, 2019 election may retard the progress already recorded.

Lukman said young people deemed it fit to canvass votes for Dr. Ibrahim, because his representation had changed the political narrative of the area.

He appealed to the people of Kwara South not to be swayed by what he described as the “campaign of calumny” of the opposition, saying the incumbent senator deserved re-election with his track record of performance.

He said Senator Ibrahim, who chairs the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, sponsored some bills on the floor of the Senate, one of which attracted national honour and made Nigeria a ranking nation in the enabling business environment.

Lukman pointed out that the legislator had also facilitated projects to the seven local government areas of Kwara South, adding he had since endeared himself into the warmth embrace of the people.

He said: “As an independent youth platform, who is more concerned about the betterment of Kwara, we assembled here to kick start our neighbor-to-neighbour campaign for Senator Rafiu Ibrahim, who is a serving senator of Kwara South, and he is contesting again for the second term.

“This is a decision we unanimously took independently for obvious reasons, which are not far-fetched. For almost 20 years that democracy has returned to Nigeria, Kwara South has equally elected representatives to the National Assembly. But the one we elected in 2015, he is one of the best we have ever had.

“For the fact that we are also a living witness to what has happened in the past and what has happened recently, we also foresee what good could happen in the future, that is why we decided to join Let’s Do More Together Team.

Lukman added: “We are inaugurating this neighbor-to-neighbour campaign to go to households, every neighbour, to let them know what Senator Rafiu Ibrahim has achieved in three and a half years at the upper chamber. For the fact that we have witnessed two or three people already in the chamber before now, who have no impact, we see reason why we must strive to ensure that for the progress of Kwara State and Kwara South in particular to continue steadily the way it has started, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim must be re-elected.

“That is why we the young people of Kwara South have taken it upon ourselves. Let us go out there to sensitise our people. They should not be blindfolded by the campaign of calumny that is going round.”

He urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to precipitate controversy on the standard bearer of the PDP for Kwara South Senatorial District