Nigeria Content Online

The gubernatorial
candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria in Kwara State, Mohammed
Dele Belgore, has described as political extremism Tuesday’s
demolitions of his billboards and those of other opposition candidates
in the state by thugs suspected to be working for the PDP and the state
government.

Mr. Belgore said
such acts were meant to intimidate Kwarans whom he said wanted a break
from the years of misrule, suppression, and corruption. He, however,
warned that “no amount of intimidation can hold back the drive for
liberation his party is championing in the state.”

Opposition
politicians in Kwara State alleged that the PDP and the state
government sponsored the violent removal of opposition billboards to
impress the visiting Nigerian president that there was no opposition to
the PDP in the state.

All the billboards
belonging to the opposition in the state capital were destroyed,
leaving only billboards belonging to the PDP governorship candidate,
Abdulfatah Ahmed.

“This is to alert
the whole world to the barbarism and political extremism going on in
Kwara State at the instance of the ruling PDP and the state government.
This barbarism is underscored by the recent violent actions of the
thugs loyal to the party, some carrying out their barbaric actions
right under the protection of the state government,” Rafiu Ajakaye, the
media aide to Mr. Belgore, said.

“All the billboards
in Ilorin belonging to the ACN governorship candidate, Mohammed Dele
Belgore, and other opposition candidates were either defaced or
uprooted outrightly by thugs being sponsored by the PDP-led state
government. At Emir’s Road, near the Belgore’s family house, for
instance, these thugs arrived at around 12.30am in a convoy of eight
vehicle containing arms and munitions, shooting sporadically into the
air to scare away any potential challenger of their barbarism, and then
tearing down the billboards.

“These actions were
repeated almost in all the key areas across the state capital,
including at Unity, Airport, and Iyana Afon Junctions, and at the Gairi
Alimi Roundabout, where they destroyed our billboards despite the fact
that the sites were duly registered and paid for under the auspices of
the Kwara State Advertising and Signage Agency (KWASA),” Mr. Ajakaye
said.

Remain calm

Mr. Ajakaye noted
that the message the ruling party and the state government are sending
to the people of Kwara is that the coming April polls would not be free
and fair.

“They have told anybody who cares to listen that the election would be a do-or-die affair,” he said.

Mr. Belgore, who
said he will not support violent reaction to the attacks, said politics
is about improving the lives of the people.

“Such actions can’t
stop liberation effort,” he said, urging the “provoked people” of Kwara
State to remain calm and not take the law into their own hands.

“These barbaric
actions only go to show that the state government and its agent
provocateurs have no respect for law and order,” he said.

Efforts to get the
reaction of Mas’ud Adebimpe, spokesperson to the Kwara State governor,
Bukola Saraki, did not succeed at press time.