19th June, 2021
About 20,000 members of the All Progressives Congress in Kwara have dumped the party to join a third force political group in the state.
The former APC members at a press conference in Ilorin burnt hundreds of brooms, the symbol of APC and attacked Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, according to reports.
The defectors are keeping the name of their new party secret for now, although some wore fez caps with the inscription of Young Progressives Party (YPP).
Kwara Central APC senatorial chair, Abdulfatai AbdulRahman said the defectors denounced APC in the state to form “Kwara Third Force for the yearnings and betterment of Kwarans.”
Alhaji AbdulRahman revealed that prolonged internal crisis in the party led to their defection.
“It is disheartening, shameful and preposterous that Kwara APC cannot manage its success even after at half time of its tenure in the saddle of governance in the state.
“The struggle for the soul of the party, which cannot be divorced from the 2023 political ambitions has been the root cause of the lingering internal squabbles.”
He said that the crisis reached its apogee during the just concluded membership registration and revalidation, alleging grand design to disenfranchise many members.
“A grand design that denied majority of party members the opportunity to register and revalidate their membership across the state is a 2023 permutation agenda. We can never cross our fingers and watch the game from the sideline.
“In addition, there is also an evidence that the incumbent governor has concluded every arrangement to ensure all elective positions from the wards to the state level work in his favour to ease his reelection bid as governorship flag bearer of the party.
“Accordingly, we the over 20,000 card-carrying members of APC including senatorial chairmen, local government party chairmen, women and youth leaders, ward chairmen as well as APC stalwarts across all the 16 local government areas in the state hereby denounce APC. ”