Impressive turn-out as Kwara APC holds ward congress

New ward excos emerge through consensus, affirmation

The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Kwara State, on Saturday, recorded a huge success in the ward congress done across the state.

Thousands of party faithful gathered in various designated venues to affirm their choice of new leaders at the ward level.

The congress which took place across the 193 electoral wards of the state, was observed by designated officials from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the APC headquarters in Abuja.

The exercise was preceded by various intra-party negotiations and consensus-building among stakeholders to arrive at a peaceful and rancour-free ward congress.

The Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq commended the process which he described as “hugely successful, credible and peaceful”.

AbdulRazaq said, “The impressive outing and the peaceful conduct of the ward congress again underscores the preference of Kwara people for peace, progressive and inclusive growth that our administration stands for,” the Governor said in a terse preliminary statement on the congress.

“I congratulate our party chieftains who have emerged from the exercise and I urge them to see this as an opportunity to serve and unite the party and deepen the democratic process.”

Speaking with newsmen after the exercise, the state factional chairman of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Samari described the exercise as peaceful, credible and “truly representative of the wishes of our people and stakeholders.”

“We are happy with the reports about the congress of our party, the All Progressives Congress. We are also grateful that it has been peaceful all through. This is achieved because of the posture of the leader of our party in Kwara State, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. He is a man of the people. He is a man who believes in democracy and allows partymen to air their views. That’s why we had 100% perfection in congresses that took place across the state today,” he said.

“Our men went to the field with the objective of consensus all through as a preference that will further unite the APC family and exactly that is what we had today. We want to give kudos to our governor who has been able to initiate that. So, the reports filtering in indicate that there were no problems whatsoever and our people accept the outcome of the exercise.”

For his part, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Political Matters Abdulateef Gidado Alakawa, described the process as purely democratic and representation of opinion of the people.

Alakawa said that the process of choosing wards’ leaders for the party shows wide acceptance of the Governor as the leader of the party.

“What happened here is a consensus but it is not a consensus without normal procedure. Candidates were nominated, counter nomination was called which there was none. It is just an affirmation of the governor because his leadership has made us proud,” he said.

He urged the new leaders of the party to justify the confidence reposed in them and carry everybody along in the scheme of things.

Meanwhile, the Bolarinwa led APC group also held congress across all the wards in the state and elected their respective executives at ward level through consensus.