Against all odds, Oba Abdulkadri Magaji on Saturday emerged as the new candidate of the Kwara state APC for the upcoming Ilorin Central House of Assembly election.
Hon Magaji Abubakar Olawoyin’s death on Monday 9 January 2023 had set the stage for a possible bruising battle over his replacement.
Olawoyin was not only a prominent member of the ruling APC in the state but also the House Leader, Kwara state House of Assembly.
Magaji, who was until his death, the representative of Ilorin Central state constituency, was also seeking to retain his parliament seat this year being one of the members of the House of Assembly that had gotten nominated by the APC for the House of Assembly election scheduled to hold in March.
In the primary election that was held last year, Hon. Abubakar Olawoyin had 13 votes, Abdulrasheed Laaro Oladimeji got 2 votes, Engineer Isiaka Toyin Agaka ,Bello Munirat Bolajoko and Lawal Abimbola Monshurat had 1 vote each.
Section 33 of the 2022 electoral act says:
‘A political party shall not be allowed to change or substitute a candidate whose name has been submitted under section 29 of this act except in the case of death or withdrawal by the candidate.
Provided that in the case of such withdrawal or death of a candidate, the political party affected shall within 14 days of the occurrence of the event hold a fresh primary election to produce and submit a fresh candidate to the commission for the election concerned’
Kwara state APC had since met the deadline by taking a definitive decision on who should be nominated as its new candidate.
The primary election organized to produce a new candidate was held at the Kwara state Council for Art and Culture , Ilorin on Saturday and it had five people from each of the five wards in the constituency playing the role of party delegates .
The constituency comprises five Wards; Badari, Oko Erin, Magaji ngeri, Warah and Baboko.
Barrister Oba Magaji Abdulkadir, who is late Hon Magaji Abubakar Olawoyin’s brother, has emerged as winner of the primary election.
He had 17 votes , Hon Sulaiman Abubakar got 1 vote while Toyin Agaka had 7 votes.
It was a development that had somewhat made it known that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and other APC stalwarts in the state were determined to reward loyal party members.
Late Hon Abubakar Olawoyin was former Senator Gbemisola Saraki’s acolyte and she had been instrumental in his emergence as APC House of Assembly candidate ahead of the 2019 general election.
The late politician had a billboard that featured his picture and that of Gbemisola becoming conspicuous at Agbo-Oba junction for close to a decade.
The schism in the state APC in the early days of the Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq administration which had the governor and Gbemisola going their separate ways, put a strain on the relationship between the former senator and the deceased lawmaker as he had chosen to support the governor’s camp.
Former senator Gbemisola Saraki is currently the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development.
Sources told Team@orientactualmags.com that party members were on Saturday mobilized to support Oba Abdulkadir Magaji by political bigwigs in the party adding that this was done to reward the deceased lawmaker for his loyalty.
Delegates also reportedly got N50,000 each to ‘buy fuel’- Team@orientactualmags.com
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