ILORIN—Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and 2007 Kwara State Governorship Candidate of the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Gbenga Olawepo, has rallied support for President Goodluck Jonathan following the mixed views trailing the Independence Day bomb blasts in Abuja.

Olawepo, who was given a heroic reception in Ilorin, the Kwara State Capital, yesterday, by his supporters, commiserated with the families of the victims of the explosions.

He said: “At this critical time, I urge all of us to rally support for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan whom it has pleased God to bestow the huge responsibility of steering the ship of state at a time like this.

It is normal in a democracy, for citizens to share different perspectives and hold divergent opinions more so in a country like ours that is pluralistic. However on the issue of security, the President and Commander-in-Chief is the most senior General whose word is a command to all citizens regardless of political persuasion.”

Olawepo left the country shortly after the courts threw out his petition against the re-election of Governor Bukola Saraki.

In a 32-paragraph speech, he told his supporters and admirers, who gathered to honour him that he had returned to continue the battle to free Kwara from “those who have enslaved Kwara State.”

Decrying the violence that attended the 2007 polls in the state, he paid tributes to the victims of the election mayhem and charged the citizenry, Olawepo said “Kwara can be free again.”

He continued: “Three decades of oppression has changed our story, and our image. This is what happens to a people when an alien political culture is transplanted after a defeat by superior firepower. Such has happened to Kwara when the Federal Forces, protecting the filthy hands of FEDECO, through electoral fraud drew Kwara violently into the axis of the political oligarchy.

In three decades of hegemonic rule, all the industries and the Kwara Trade bank put together under the Idiagbon regime to act as catalyst to the economy were allowed to die, resulting in mass unemployment and attendant poverty.

“I share in your optimism that Kwara can be great again; this is the message you have made by turning out in en-masse for this reception, you have demonstrated to the world that you are prepared to carry the struggle which was waged in 2007 to its logical conclusion.

I have come too, to continue that struggle that we are all sworn to- for a free Kwara. I have come too, so that we can put Kwara in a new pedestal, I have come so that we as Kwarans may join others in the forward march for a new direction for our country Nigeria.”