Kwara By-Election: Is The Senate Now An Election Tribunal?

By Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, National Publicity Secretary, APC
The questionable decision by the Senate to “investigate” the circumstances leading to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loss in the last Saturday’s House of Representatives’ by-election in Kwara State must be seen for what it is –  an abuse of the powers of the legislative arm of government to pursue selfish political ends.
While the All Progressives Congress (APC) condemns this curious Senate investigation of the by-election which took place in the home state of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, we also find it curious that other by-elections conducted in Katsina and Bauchi States have not received similar attention from the Senate.
It is clear that the sweet victory by the APC House of Representatives candidate, Alhaji Raheem Olawuyi-Ajuloopin in the by-election has hit the overrated federal lawmakers from Kwara State badly.
The PDP is not pretending to have learnt any lessons from its past anti-democratic practices. The usurpers occupying the Senate leadership seat have no altruistic intentions other than to manipulate state institutions to pursue personal interests and massage battered ego. When has it become the responsibility of the legislative arm of government to constitute itself into an election tribunal?
They should understand that, like the rest of the country, Kwara State has seen enough of impunity and misrule represented by the self-serving leaders of the PDP.
Turning the Senate into an electoral tribunal only shows Nigerians that the PDP has not changed from its odious practice of compromising the system to promote illusionary ambitions.
We can only advise the leaders of PDP in Kwara State and elsewhere in the country to get used to losing elections. The Nigerian electorate have tasted the benefits of good governance in the last three and half years of President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC government and won’t go back to the PDP’s 16 years of waste and misrule.
Elections have been won and lost. A new and progressive Kwara State beckons. Through their votes, the Kwara electorate have spoken clearly on the new political direction in the State.
Kwara State has suffered enough of the selfish machinations of a self-appointed leader. The will and wishes of the good people of the state must prevail now, in the 2019 elections and beyond.