By Saka Laaro, Ilorin
Kwara State government has alerted the security agents and members of the public of plot by some politicians to instigate violence in the state and later blame it on the state governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
Chief Press Secretary to Governor AbdulRazaq, Rafiu Ajakaye disclosed this at a news conference in Ilorin, the state capital.
Ajakaye who said those behind the plot cut across party lines said the plot is part of a grand conspiracy to defame the Governor.
He said the plots also included sponsorship of spurious corruption allegations using sexed up official documents and innuendoes in the media to blackmail the Governor, urging members of the public and security agencies to be wary of the conspiracies.
“The objective of the plotters is to create a false image for the Governor as a promoter of violence, thereby heating up the polity in the name of politics and pitching him against the public. The desperadoes behind this plot do not care about the safety of the ordinary people and their properties,” Ajakaye told a news briefing in Ilorin, the state capital.
“The image they desperately seek to give the Governor is contrary to the sustained policy of His Excellency not to patronise thugs or any violent elements as was the case in the recent past. Rather than deploy the children of other people for political violence, the Governor desires to build a state that gives everyone, including those long condemned to thuggery and other antisocial behaviour, a fair chance to lead decent life. It is on record that even before becoming the Governor, he ran a campaign that was strictly issues-based without going around with thugs. He has a personal conviction that politics should be devoid of violence of any kind.
“Another leg of the evil campaign is a planned and sustained media campaign of calumny woven around baseless allegations of corruption, contract inflation and the likes using doctored documents and wicked innuendoes. All of these are targeted at the Governor because he chooses to do things differently. His only sin is his principled stand that Otoge means we cannot continue to share public patrimony to a few individuals. He is being targeted for malicious campaigns because he chooses to be his own man, and not to be another stooge who would be tossed around to do biddings other than what the public expects of him,” Ajakaye stated.