April general elections is a liberation struggle for the people of Kwara who are locked between voting for the progressives in Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and keeping the reactionaries in power, Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi said, weekend.

Fayemi said that a victory for ACN translates to free education, free healthcare, improved social amenities and liberties to aspire to greatness. He urged them to brace up for the challenge of confronting an established culture of bribe-for-vote and election rigging “by the bullies who have done nothing to improve people’s lives.”

He spoke in Ilorin at the official commissioning of ACN’s new secretariat on Asa Dam Road and inauguration of the party’s campaign committees, ahead of the general elections slated for April.

Fayemi spoke minutes after Kwara ACN governorship candidate, Mohammed Dele Belgore (SAN), refuted claims that the party is depleted owing to defections.

He said the recent landslide the party recorded in the Offa Local Government rerun poll and in key parts of Ilorin and Patigi underlines the soaring acceptability of the party among Kwarans.

Belgore thanked the people of Offa and Patigi for their courage to stand up for the truth and freedom, regardless of the intimidation and persecution by the ruling PDP in the state, and restated his commitment to offer the state an exemplary political leadership and good governance as is being witnessed in Lagos, Edo, and recently in Ekiti and Osun where the ACN just dislodged the PDP.

Fayemi said the struggle to liberate Kwara is the duty of all progressives in Nigeria, who he assured have resolved to stand by “all of you in this task. We are satisfied that the people of Kwara have a good and outstanding leader in Mr. Belgore who is a distinguished Nigerian and a senior member of the legal progression. We have been through this sort of struggle before in Ekiti and I assure you that it is our collective struggle to liberate Kwara from the grips of the reactionaries in April. It is a struggle for liberation and good governance, and with you standing by us we will get there.

“Let me remind you that our opponents are moneybags who will want to bribe you and then starve you. They will want to intimidate you. But you must stand firm for your future. For us it will be an intellectual struggle and with one_man one vote ACN is sure of victory in April not only in Kwara but at the national level.”

ACN National Publicity, Lai Muhammed, led other party top notches to the event, including the Director General of the Mohammed Dele Belgore (MDB) Campaign Organisation (MDB), Dr. Sa’ad Omoiya; Deputy Director General (South), Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo; DDG North, Alhaji Idris Mahmoud; DDG Edu Patigi, Alhaji Umaru Abdullahi.