Ahmad Lawan In Kwara, Attacks His Predecessor, Saraki
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Saturday travelled to Kwara State, North Central Nigeria where he attacked his predecessor, Sen Abubakar Bukola Saraki.
This will be the first time Lawan will be attacking Saraki openly, Lawan served under Saraki as Senate leader.
Even though Saraki emerged Senate President in 2015 against the wish of Bola Ahmed Tinubu who wanted to plant Femi Gbajabiamila and Ahmad Lawan as Speaker and Senate President respectively before Yakubu Dogara and Saraki emerged against all odds, pundits say the incumbent Senate President and his political leader Tinubu ate still having some misgivings with Saraki.
While openly attacking Saraki, Lawan advised the people of Kwara State not to allow those people that they chased out of government in 2019 to find their way back to power.Saraki and the PDP were defeated in Kwara State by the All Progressives Congress(APC) but the PDP is set to launch a come back in 2023 with Saraki at the centre of the game.
But Lawan, who was in Ilorin, Kwara State to commission some of the Constituency projects executed by Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, a lawmaker representing Kwara Central, said Oloriegbe stewardship is good and deserve a reelection.
Oloriegbe, who use the ‘O to ge’ slogan and defeated Saraki in a violent Senate race, also declare his intention to run again to represent the people of Kwara Central in 2023.
But the Senate President told the people of Kwara State in general to continue to keep faith with APC.
“I will like to remind you here, those people that you chased out will never get tired of trying to come back. You have only one more of “Otoge” and they will never come back.
“In 2023, just chase them far away from Kwara, and they will never find their way to Kwara. Don’t take it for granted.
They are smart people. You know that. Chase them far away, if you can, up to the Atlantic Ocean if you chose to chase them to the South. If you wish, chase them up to Niger Republic. Chase them far away from here.
“The people of Kwara, you have gotten what you deserve from 2019. You have a state Governor that is for you. You have your National Assembly members that are for you. You have your state Assembly members that are for you and council chairmen and councillors.“Don’t ever take that for granted.
“Less than three years, what our state Governor in Kwara has done, what our members of National Assembly, our Distinguished Senators, all the three of them, Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe from Kwara Central, Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar of Kwara North, Senator Lola Ashiru of Kwara South, have given every time that they need to give for us in the Senate to achieve what we have been able to achieve in the Senate.
“You don’t need to think twice. Vote for them more than you did in 2019. Make the gap more than convincing. Vote massively. Don’t assume, well we have win in 2019, this people, send them far away from Kwara so that we can maintain the trajectory of what you have been able to get today because, Nigerians, having gone through 16 years of deprivation, of mis-governance between 1999 and 2015, deserve the Progressives to continue to provide leadership in Nigeria,” Lawan said.
Speaking specifically on Senator Oloriegbe, Lawan said: “What we watched, the 30 minutes documentary on the activities of Distinguished Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, showed something more than three-year activities of a Senator.
“For you to achieve what you did in less than three years, it beats my imagination, how a new Senator, in three years, can attract so many projects, sponsored so many bills and engaged himself in so many activities within a short time.
“Imagine if you had him as your Senator in the Eigth Assembly, so if you are talking of seven years down the line, probably we will be here until next day going through his achievements,” Lawan said.
==============