Business booms, free medicare care as Buhari campaigns in Ilorin; Lai Mohammed: ‘It’s time to vote out the rapacious govt in Kwara

Global Patriot Staff February 11, 2019 Lead Story, Local, News Leave a comment 295 Views

(L-R) The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; President Muhammadu Buhari; and the Minister of Transportation/Director General Buhari Campaign Organisation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, at the APC Presidential Campaign Rally in Ilorin, Kwara State, on Monday

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the time has come to retire the political oligarchs who have appropriated Kwara State and its resources to themselves to the detriment of the people.

The Minister made the remarks while addressing the mammoth crowd that attended the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential rally in Ilorin, Kwara State on Monday.

“It is time to retire those who have held Kwara State down and made our people and our state very poor. They have been deceiving the people. They have been blaming the federal government for their failure.

”When they can’t pay workers salary, they blame the Federal Government. When they can’t provide infrastructure, they blame the Federal Government. They forgot to tell the people that Mr. President has graciously approved bailouts and Paris Club Refund for states, including Kwara. Ask them, where is the money? What did they do with it?” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed warned that voting the present crop of leaders in Kwara State into power again is like giving them another licence to embark of a looting spree, and urged the people to be wary of their Greek gift under the guise of offsetting workers’ salaries

“With elections approaching, their leader, I said their leader, NOT the state government, suddenly brought out 2.5 billion Naira from his kitty to pay workers. Where do individuals pay state workers? Where did the money come from? It is your money that they have been keeping. They have brought out some of it because they are desperate,” he said.

The Minister said the Buhari Administration has executed various infrastructural and social development projects in Kwara, listing them as including the rehabilitation of Ohan and Moro Bridges on Ilorin-Igbeti road; Construction of Patigi-Kpada road and the rehabilitation of Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa road, which used to be a nightmare for motorists.

He also listed the roads being rehabilitated or constructed to include the Ilorin-Kabba Obajana road; the Ajase-Ipo-Offa-Erin Ile-Osun state boundary; Kaiama-KIshi Road; Offa Bypass in Offa as well as the dualization of Michael Imoudu Ganmo/Afon junction road Ilorin

In addition, Alhaji Mohammed said about 50,000 Kwarans are benefitting from Tradermoni and Marketmoni, 9,886 homes in Kwara State are benefitting from the Conditional Cash Transfer that gives 5,000 Naira monthly to the most vulnerable while the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme has seen the number of rice farmers in Kwara grow from 5,000 to 30,000.

He therefore urged the people of the state to vote for President Buhari, APC governorship candidate Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and all other APC candidates in the forthcoming elections.

The mega rally was attended by President Buhari, National Chairman of the APC Adams Oshiomhole, National Leader of the APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, former Osun State Governors Bisi Akande and Rauf Aregbesola, Ministers of Transportation as well as Interior, Rotimi Amaechi and Abdulrahman Dambazau respectively, and the APC governorship candidate in Kwara State, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman, among others.

Meanwhile, NAN reports that traders at the rally made brisk business.

Items such as soft drinks cans and flutes were bought and used to sing “ó tó gé” campaign slogan, meaning “enough is enough’’, while branded materials such as fez-caps and T-shirts were sold at the rally.

A team of medical personnel were also on hand to treat patients suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, malaria and Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) among others, free of charge.

A nurse, who simply identified herself as Jumoke, said that the patronage from party faithful had been huge, stressing that most of them came complaining of various ailments.

Some of the patients, who besieged the medical centre set up for the purpose, commended the move, adding that it was a laudable gesture by the Kwara APC.

Mr Akeem Ahmed, a party faithful said that he was feeling pain in his left leg and took advantage of the free medical treatment at the venue of the presidential rally.

Ahmed commended the party for organising such free medical treatment, adding that many of them were scared of patronising the hospital because of the fear of paying outrageous bills.

Some of the patients were immediately administered drugs as a temporary relief while others were referred to the hospital for proper treatment.

Staff members of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital ((UITH) were also on the ground to attend to emergency cases with their stretchers, ambulances and other medical facilities that could aid emergency cases.

One of the staff, who refused to give his name because he was not authorised to speak said that the response for free medical treatment at the venue of the rally had been huge.

According to the staff, I think this gesture will help proffer immediate solution to those who will have to suffer from one thing or the other because of the large crowd converging on the venue of the rally.

One of the party supporters suffered some injuries from pushing from the crowded and was immediately taken to the staff of the UITH for medical treatment.