The Campaign Council of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara state, Thursday December 22, 2022, expressed confidence that the party will win the 2023 gubernatorial election by wide margin.
The chairman of the party in the state, Prince Sunday Fagbemi, the director general of the campaign council, Abdulfatahi Seriki and the spokesperson of the council, Mrs Florence Oyeyemi, made the declaration at a news conference in Ilorin, the state capital.
Fagbemi and Seriki disclosed that efforts were ongoing to bring back former stalwarts of APC who have emerged as the governorship candidattes of SDP, YPP and NNPP.
“APC shall win the gubernatorial election and other elections by wide margin.No cause for alarm.The minister of Information and Culture, Alh Lai Mohammed is one of our leaders and he’s still part of us. He has never said that he’s no longer part of us. He will participate in the 2023 general elections with us. The closer you look, the lesser you know as it concerns APC in Kwara. Never mind, by the time elections comes you will see that we’re going to win by wide margin than what happened in 2019. There’s no cause for alarm”, Fagbemi said.
On his part, the APC campaign council director general, Seriki said: “The APC campaign council is working hard to bring back APC stalwarts who have emerged as gubernatorial candidates of YPP, NNPP, SDP to APC which is their family.”
Seriki said exodus of governorship and senatorial candidates of the YPP, SDP, NNPP and ADC from the ruling party will not have negative effect on the chances of the governor in 2023 general elections.
He added, “If you could recall, I was the director general of the APC campaign council in the Kwara Central senatorial district in 2018/2019 general elections. Many of these people that decamped from APC didn’t participate in the election campaign then. You see, all these people in the YPP, SDP, etc we’re part of one big family and are related one way or the other. In 2019, I approached about 13 governorship aspirants then on the need to present one person among all of us as the party’s governorship candidate. The major reason they are not in APC today is because of their personal interest or expectations which according to them might not have been met.
“My own interest is to see a better Kwara state. If they believe in growth of the state, they would not have left the party. Kwara is bigger than anybody. Leaving the party, to me, is out of personal interest and not that of the state.
“To answer your question, their departure from the party would not affect chances of the governor in his bid for re-election. They also know they are going no where leaving the party. They were probably looking for ways to see us come and meet with them, which we have already started. By the special grace of God, the governorship candidates of the YPP, SDP, even PDP, we are together. Don’t be surprised to hear and see tomorrow the PDP governorship candidate, Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdulahi, saying that because of Ambassador Yahaya Seriki, he’s supporting Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq reelection bid come 2023.”
Also speaking, Mrs Oyeyemi said the state has moved from the 20th position on financial sustainability index in 2018 to 8th position currently.
She was responding to allegation by the opposition on alleged huge debt profile of the present administration, saying that there is no way the present administration would have been servicing debt and move up on the financial sustainability index.
“Fiscal sustainability index simply means ability to be able to sustain your finances comparing it with what your loan repayment schedules are and relating it with federal accounting and allocation Committee (FAAC) and IGR”, she said.
She also said the only facility taken by the present administration was bond, which she said was being used for the execution of sustainable projects like garment making factory, Innovation hub and Visual Arts Centre.
