Kwara state PDP members Blame Leadership for Defeat
Members of the Kwara state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party have said that the party’s massive defeat in the state was due to the lack of unity among its leaders in the state.
The APC won all three senatorial districts and six federal constituencies in the state as its presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), also got a massive record of 302,146 votes against President Goodluck Jonathan’s 132,602 votes.
According to reports, the party members, who were interviewed on Tuesday in Ilorin, said that the elections in the state were to a large extent, free, fair and peaceful.
According to the PDP supporters, the trouble in the party started when some leaders of the chapter, Dele Belgore (SAN); Prof. Oba Abdulraheem; Sen. Gbemisola Saraki; and Senator Simeon Ajibola all contested the PDP governorship primaries, which Senator Jibola later won.
They said: “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.
“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.
“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.”