A socio-cultural organisation in Kwara South, Orisun Igbomina, has picked holes in a recent comment credited to the deputy Senate Leader, Arc. Lola Ashiru, on the zoning of gubernatorial ticket in the State ahead of the 2027 governorship election.
This is just as the group canvassed the zoning of the gubernatorial seat to Kwara North senatorial zone, which has not produced a governor of the state since 1999.
Senator Ashiru, who represents Kwara South in the 10th Senate, had last weekend said the gubernatorial seat of the state was opened to contest by all interested persons across the three senatorial districts in the state.
However, the Orisun Igbomina group described Ashiru’s position on the issue of zoning the gubernatorial position in the state come 2027 “as a tactic to advance negotiations to secure his senatorial mandate for the third term.”
The national president of Orisun Igbomina, Chief Gbenga Awoyale, while reacting to Senator Ashiru’s comment, said: “The statement by the Kwara South Senator is nothing to be taken serious. It is just an encrypted message to advance his agenda to return to the Senate for the 3rd term because he knows it should ordinarily be Igbomina’s turn. But I wish to let Sen. Ashiru knows that it will not work.
“Of course, one would not expect Sen. Ashiru to support zoning gubernatorial ticket to Kwara North in 2027, because he feels if the formula, which guarantees fairness and equity is adopted and generalized, it would affect him as well. He won’t return to Senate. So, he has to start talking down on zoning arrangements early enough.”
Awoyale emphasised that, “In 2027, for us in Kwara South, it is Igbomina’s turn. We are also favorably disposed to zoning the governorship to Kwara north to ensure the longstanding imbalance in power rotation in the state is resolved and there is no better time to achieve that than now.”
Going down the memory lane, Awoyale added: “Kwara South is a tripod, consisting of Igbomina, Ekiti and Ibolo extractions. Since return of democracy in 1999, we’ve had four Senators within that 25 years, out of which Igbomina only served 5 years, while Ekiti and Ibolo served 12 years and 8 years respectively. By the time Sen. Ashiru, who is an Ibolo man, completes his second term, it would be 12 years spent by the Ibolos in Kwara South Senate. It is, therefore, utterly unfair for anybody to be plotting continued marginalization of the most populous segment of the Kwara South.
“We see the recent comments by Senator Ashiru as a ploy to attract political attention and invite politicians to negotiation table with him, where he can advance his selfish third term senatorial ambition.
“In clear terms, Orisun Igbomina stands strongly by zoning governorship of Kwara State to the Northern Senatorial District, while also affirming our commitment to ensuring we halt the continued marginalization of the Igbomina people in Kwara South Senatorial District by making working with our well meaning and altruistic brothers from Ekiti and Ibolo axis to have a fair and inclusive representation in government,” the group declared.
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