By Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
Senator-elect of All Progressives Congress (APC) for Kwara South senatorial district, Hon. Lola Ashiru, has said that the outcome of February 23 presidential and national assembly polls in the state was a manifestation of the dream of the people of Kwara to have a new set of leaders.
He said that the people of the state are tired of the continued dominance of a single family in the political landscape of the state and therefore revolted against the family during the last elections so as to bring more good governance to the rural communities of the state.
Ashiru polled 89,704 votes to defeat the incumbent senator representing the zone, Senator Rafiu Ibrahim of PDP that polled 45,176 votes.
Ashiru in his first interview with journalists on Tuesday in his home town of Offa, the headquarters of Offa local government area of the state, since his election as a senator-elect, however boasted that the APC would repeat the landslide electoral victory in this Saturday’s governorship and state house of assembly elections in the state.
He said that, “the people of the state are very prepared to save themselves from the stranglehold of the present regime. Nothing is going to stop us from achieving victory.
“No amount of tribulation, falsehood and illicit funds will stop us from achieving a total victory. Last election was straight ten zero,
at the end of this Saturday we will have 36 zero. It is an assurance because people are prepared.”
Ashiru, who had made unsuccessful attempts at the senate seat revealed, “I have never lost any election. You can see what happened February 23rd. It has always been manipulations upon manipulations.
“I have known all along when the system is right, when votes count that I will win an election. I am grateful to the Federal Government, I am grateful to the security personnel and the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) for applying the rule as it should be.
“That is why we won this election. Any election that is free and fair people will always triumph in Kwara state.”
On the lessons learnt, he said that “the first lesson we have learnt from our victory is the spirit of persistence, the spirit of goodness
and the spirit of striving to get whatever you want to get in life. It is a good lesson not only to people around me, but the whole of Kwara
state.
“I have mentioned it in many fora that the liberation of Kwara state starts from Offa here. This is the principal place where we plan and
engineer how the state could move forward, because we know Kwara cannot move forward If we continue like we have been doing before, if we continue with the regime of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). We are all happy and excited that today we are free.
“I have told people in so many fora that they should expect the best representation ever. I am not going there for personal enrichment. I
am not going there for contracts, I am going there to ensure that the people of Kwara South are well represented. And whatever is due to
them comes to them.
“I am assuring you that I will open doors for as many as possible youths and the elderly to participate in the national equation. We are
not going to be behind. It is going to be a mass participation and I am sure my coming will attract a lot of people hitherto sitting on the fence to participate in politics.”
