By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The Kwara State government, on Wednesday alerted the citizens of the state of uncovered plans by some alleged politicians to sponsor “urchins and other violent elements” to promote mayhem in the state.
The government, through the Chief Press Secretary to Govermor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Rafiu Ajakaiye, at a press conference, said this plot by the unnamed politicians was to launch “violent attacks on members of the public and some political interests and then blame it on the governor.”
He said “It has become pertinent at this time to draw the attention of members of the public and the security agencies to grand plots by some political interests in the state and their enablers elsewhere, to activate and sustain a campaign of calumny against this administration.”
The objective of the plotters, he said, was to create a false image for the governor as a promoter of violence, thereby heating up the polity in the name of politics and pitching him against the public.
Ajakaiye at the press briefing said, “The image they desperately seek to give the governor is contrary to the sustained policy of His Excellency not to patronise thugs or any violent elements as was the case in the recent past.
“Rather than deploy the children of other people for political violence, the governor desires to build a state that gives everyone, including those long condemned to thuggery and other anti-social behaviour, a fair chance to lead decent life.
“It is on record that even before becoming the governor, he ran a campaign that was strictly issues-based, without going around with thugs. He has a personal conviction that politics should be devoid of violence of any kind.”
He, however, added that those he called the “adversaries” of his principal to “have resolved to make the state ungovernable for their own selfish agenda, have “central to this evil plot a resolve to instigate crisis/attacks and then instruct those who carry out the attacks to “drop” the names of the governor or his aides as their sponsors.
He added, “They want to go as far as sowing cloths with the signature AA, the initials of the governor and give same to their foot soldiers or hitmen to wear in order to blackmail the governor. This is desperation in its worst form.”
Ajakaiye also said, “Another leg of the evil campaign is a planned and sustained media campaign of calumny, woven around baseless allegations of corruption, contract inflation and the likes, using doctored documents and wicked innuendoes.
“All of these are targeted at the governor because he chooses to do things differently. His only sin is his principled stand that ‘O to ge’ means we cannot continue to share public patrimony to a few individuals.
“He is being targeted for malicious campaigns, because he chooses to be his own man, and not to be another stooge, who would be tossed around to do biddings other than what the public expects of him.”
He urged the public to disregard this plot if it was carried out, saying; “Those behind the plot have paid for radio slots and mobilised various bloggers and social media influencers to constantly attack the person of the governor.”
Contrary to the alleged insinuations, Ajakaiye said the governor was rated sixth among the best governors during the COVID-19 efforts, aside his other transparent policies.
Recall that the state has of late been heated up as a result of the violent squabbles in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, pitching the governor on one side and the Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohamned on the other side.
These factions and their followers engaged themselves in bloody clashes last week at separate stakeholders meetings held at the Government House Banquet Hall, as well as another one at Edu Local Governmrnt Area of the state, over the scheduled registration and validation exercise of APC.
CompassNG gathered that some chieftains of the party, who sustained various degrees of injuries were still in the hospitals as at the time of filing this report on Wednesday.
