The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Saturday advised the people of Kwara State not to allow those people that they chased out of the state government house in 2019 to find their way back to power.
The current administration of the All Progressives Congress(APC) took over power in the state in 2019 from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but the PDP is scheming to recapture power in 2023.
The Senate President was in Ilorin, the capital city of Kwara State to commission some of the Constituency projects sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe who is representing Kwara Central Senatorial District.
Lawan spoke at a town hall meeting organised by Senator Oloriegbe to account for his stewardship and also declare his intention to run again and represent his people of Kwara Central in 2023 polls.
The Senate President told the people of Kwara State, in general, to continue to keep faith with APC.
“I will like to remind you here, those people that you chased out will never get tired of trying to come back. You have only one more of “Otoge” and they will never come back.
“In 2023, just chase them far away from Kwara, and they will never find their way to Kwara. Don’t take it for granted. They are smart people. You know that. Chase them far away, if you can, up to the Atlantic Ocean if you chose to chase them to the South. If you wish, chase them up to the Niger Republic. Chase them far away from here.
“The people of Kwara, you have gotten what you deserve from 2019. You have a state Governor that is for you. You have your National Assembly members that are for you. You have your state Assembly members that are for you and council chairmen and councillors.
“Don’t ever take that for granted. Less than three years, what our state Governor in Kwara has done, what our members of the National Assembly, our Distinguished Senators, all the three of them, Senator Yahaya Oloriegbe from Kwara Central, Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar of Kwara North, Senator Lola Ashiru of Kwara South, have given every time that they need to give for us in the Senate to achieve what we have been able to achieve in the Senate.
“You don’t need to think twice. Vote for them more than you did in 2019. Make the gap more than convincing. Vote massively. Don’t assume, well we have won in 2019, these people, send them far away from Kwara so that we can maintain the trajectory of what you have been able to get today because, Nigerians, having gone through 16 years of deprivation, of misgovernance between 1999 and 2015, deserve the Progressives to continue to provide leadership in Nigeria,” Lawan said.
Speaking specifically on Senator Oloriegbe, the Senate President said the people of Kwara Central could not have had it better considering the achievements of the Senator within less than three years of his being in the Senate.
“What we watched, the 30 minutes documentary on the activities of Distinguished Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, showed something more than the three-year activities of a Senator.
“For you to achieve what you did in less than three years, it beats my imagination, how a new Senator, in three years, can attract so many projects, sponsored so many bills and engaged himself in so many activities within a short time.
“Imagine if you had him as your Senator in the Eighth Assembly, so if you are talking of seven years down the line, probably we will be here until next day going through his achievements,” Lawan said.
Earlier before the Town Hall Meeting, the Senate President perform the Foundation Laying ceremony of the Drug and Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Centre for Federal Neuro-Psychiatry Hospital, Budo-Egba, Asa Local Government Area.
Lawan also commissioned a Comprehensive Health Center, Dr Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe Foundation Building at Idi-Isin, Ilorin South Local Government Area and commissioned as well the Ilorin Emirate Mobile Health Clinic.
The Senate President commended Senator Oloriegbe for facilitating the idea of a rehabilitation centre.
He said the idea of the centre was “to show that the Federal government of Nigeria cares about our youths. That our President, Muhammadu Buhari cares about our youths and their tomorrow. That the Distinguished Senator you voted for, the man representing you today in the Senate, Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe cares.
“That we all care for the Youths of this country and the development of this country because the Youths in any nation are the leaders of tomorrow.
“Today, it’s a fact, that across the country, we are challenged as a people, as a nation by substance and drug abuse. Some of our youths that fall victims need to be rehabilitated.
“But I want to take the opportunity here to appeal to all of us in the leadership positions at all levels of government, Federal, State and Local Government to ensure that we are proactive, that we make it difficult for drugs and substances to be available for them to be abused.
“That we protect our youths because by protecting them, we are protecting our tomorrow, we are protecting the development of our nation and therefore this particular project is one sure way of ensuring that those that are falling victims will have a centre to go to for rehabilitation.
“But that is not what we want. That actually is not what we need. My prayer will be that after we construct this centre, there should be nobody inside it because nobody should be a victim. But we need to prepare for the worse at all times.”
