Kwara State Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu at the weekend expressed confidence that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the clear will record a landslide victory against the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the coming bye-election scheduled for November, 17th, 2018.
He said the PDP has the relevant structure, people and goodwill is ably led by the Senate President and national leader of the party in the state, Dr Bukola Saraki to deliver the party’s candidate to fill the Irepodun/Ekiti/Oke-Ero/Isin federal constituency seat.
The Commissioner also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to allow for a free, fair and transparent election that will be seen to be credible in the eyes of the world.
He said having benefited from a free and fair process; President Buhari and the APC should not be in any way associated with anything that will undermines the credibility of the poll to avoid pushing the country into anarchy.
Banu noted this during an interactive /empowerment programme for the 11 wards in Irepodun Local Government, held at Ajase-lpo.
He urged the people to vote massively for the PDP candidate during the bye-election, Hon Jimoh Saheed Alatise, adding that the PDP has the grassroot and confident of victory.
“Some people said the bye-election is going to be a test case for the PDP and the APC in 2019. I do not want to believe that. Well, may be for the APC to show their level of acceptance in the state. We believe that it is just a requirement that must be met to fill the vacuum created because of the demise of our late sister, late Princess Funke Adedoyin.
“Clearly, it is just going to be a walkover. I want to implore the Federal Government to allow a free and fair election. If you see what happened today you will realise that the PDP is on ground.
“Do you even see APC campaigning in spite of the fact that the election is a week away and they have neither done rally nor campaigned because they know they are not on ground.
“Well, like we said, may be they have other means of winning. We were here last Saturday, you saw the crowd, same thing this weekend. We have been coming here consistently and you have seen the crowd, they are not rented people. They are people from our community”, he added.
He said the idea of holding regular interactive meeting is intended to provide the needed platform to strengthen the cord with the grassroots.
“We try to listen to our people, what they want and there is always a feedback mechanism through which we try to know their aspirations, what they want and find a way of meeting their yearnings.
“We tell them our programmes and keep them abreast of developments in the environment and the country. They are happy that we consider them as important, we make them have sense of belonging.
“There is nothing like federal might, the world is now a global village. I want to believe that the president will not be a party to such an oddity and you can only rig where you are popular.
“We do not have a choice than to have confidence in INEC but judging from the last two elections they conducted in Osun and Ekiti, there are growing concerns”, he added.
