Ten governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress in Kwara State have asked traditional rulers not to get involved in politics. This comes amid claims of a plan to get the support of traditional leaders for the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, as the party’s candidate for the 2027 election.
The aspirants claim some people want to gather traditional rulers for a visit to President Bola Tinubu. They want to thank him for supposedly accepting and endorsing Danladi-Salihu’s candidacy.
They expressed their worries during a meeting with the national leadership of the APC in Abuja on June 17 and 18. This information was shared in a statement made available to Sunday PUNCH.
The aspirants also denied claims that they had agreed to back the Director General of the National Orientation Agency, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, as their choice. They pointed out that the NOA boss did not even get a nomination form.
The governorship aspirants who attended the meeting included Dr. Bashir Bolarinwa, Senator Salihu Mustapha, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, Alhaji Tajudeen Audu, Makaman Lafiagi, Dr. Toyin Alabi, Rt. Hon. Mohammed Omar, Dr. Muyideen Salako, Mohammed Belgore, SAN, Abdulfatai Seriki, and Ahmad Mahmud.
Speaking for the group, Chief James Ayeni, the Chairman of the Kwara APC Elders Caucus, said there has been no primary election in the state to choose the Speaker as the party’s candidate. He stressed that the APC has not adopted Danladi-Salihu as its consensus governorship candidate.
“To the best of our knowledge, the Party has not published the endorsement of any candidate in Kwara State. We would therefore like to caution the planners and masterminds of this desperate attempt not to drag our highly respected Royal Fathers into an intraparty matter and affair. It is a settled fact that Traditional Rulers are Fathers of all, irrespective of political inclination, and they are insulated from partisan political calculations.
“Never in the history of our dear state have our Royal Fathers been dragged into the affairs of any political party in particular and participating in politics in general. Therefore, dragging our Royal Fathers into the internal affairs of the APC is a sign of desperation, which is akin to decorating a Trojan Horse. It would be an unprecedented abuse of privileged positions by the planners and schemers of this mindless and inappropriate visit to Mr. President.
“Therefore, we would like to appeal to our dignified and respected Traditional Rulers not to allow any person, however highly placed, to drag them and our Traditional Institution into the affairs of political parties or to engage in partisan politics,” they said.
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