Kwara Polls: Confusion In Kwara PDP As Guber Candidate Mulls Backing Out

Funke AzeezMarch 7, 2019

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With just two days before the gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections across the nation, confusion has rocked the Kwara State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as its governorship candidate, Razaq Atunwa, has insisted on pulling out of the race owing to lack of funding of his campaign by the incumbent Governor Abdulfatai Ahmed, among other factors.

The confusion deepened in the past few days as Ahmed made it clear he was not going to spend public funds to bankroll the campaign again as anti-graft agencies keep beaming their searchlight on his government.

At least three top officials of the state government – including the Finance Commissioner, Ademola Banu, have been arrested in connection with the N1 billion loan recently obtained from a bank and diverted to fund the presidential and National Assembly elections.

The governor is said to be afraid that he might be arrested and prosecuted if public funds are found to have been used to run the election.

The tension is worsened by the crushing of the PDP at the presidential and National Assembly elections on February 23, with Senator Bukola Saraki and all his cronies failing to win their seats.

“There are yet-to-be successful efforts to convince Atunwa to remain in the race. He is bitter that he has become like an orphan. The governor no longer allows free money for the campaign while others are mocking him that he (Atunwa) was probably responsible for the bad luck the PDP has suffered,” according to a source.

“It is now common, even in Government House, for people to say ‘o daye Atunwa’ for PDP to win. There is this suspicion that the Governor is working for APC because of his nonchalant attitude to the PDP campaign,” the source said.

Sources also added that the governor has been bitter and he is still licking his wounds from the supposed “maltreatment” he received from his party during the primaries.
This is coupled with the fact that he was being blamed for everything.

Source also has it on good authority that the camp is now split down the middle as Ahmed made it clear he was not going to be the ‘fall guy’ anymore.

“The crisis actually deepened with the subtle rejection of Saraki by Ahmed after the senatorial ticket was withdrawn from him.

“In what looked like open declaration of war, Ahmed removed his WhatsApp DP that contained his picture with Saraki and replaced it with a picture of himself and Buhari.

“This has continued to breed bad blood, even though he has since returned the old picture as his DP.
“So Atunwa knows he has no chance at all this Saturday. Besides, he believes that stepping down may be the perfect face-saving measure,” our source explained.

There is also the unabated tension about the lack of support for Atunwa by the likes of Bolaji Abdullahi and many others who felt he had been imposed on them.

Besides, there is also palpable tension in the Saraki camp as several of his ‘good boys’ have gone underground after their leaders were flogged for making away with campaign funds.
“Top Saraki guys like Nasiru Subair and Auto were flogged for diverting money. Nasiru had his hands broken while others were dealt with too,” according to the source.