NIgerians Reject Bukola Srakai as Nigerian Senate Boss

It is now official that Nigerian Senate President Bukola Saraki has lost his bid for re-election.

The candidate for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara Central was defeated by Dr Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The medical doctor, like Saraki, garnered 123,808 votes to defeat the latter, who managed 68,994 votes in the four local governments of Kwara Central Senatorial District.

The result was announced by the Senatorial District Returning Officer, Prof Olatunbosun Owoyomi, from the University of Ilorin.

Dr Oloriegbe ran against Dr Saraki in 2011 and believed his victory was stolen by the then powerful governor.

Dr Oloriegbe was in 2011 a member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN. He believed that he was robbed by the court, against "the wishes of many Kwarans”.

He was the majority leader at the Kwara State House of Assembly between 1999 – 2003.

Dr Oloriegbe was born in Ilorin and attended Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he studied medicine before embarking on a wide practice both locally and internationally.

CAMPAIGN PROMISE

He has promised to make a big difference in his district following his poll win.

"In the past 15 years, our society has been in the grip of people who do not share our common values and heritage.

"They are dealers whose concerns are at variance with the people’s aspirations. They are leaders with inordinate appetite for wealth acquisition. They are political voyagers and power merchants. They don’t share our Islamic values and culture of leadership being a trust that will be accounted for to Allah the Creator of the universe. Hence they cannot give what they don’t have,’’ he said.

Dr Saraki, a son of maverick politician and strongman of Kwara politics, the late Olusola Saraki, was a two-time governor of Kwara before going to the senate in 2011 on the platform of PDP.

He defected from PDP to APC in 2014 and returned as a senator. He became the Senate president in 2015 and fell out with his party, then defected again to PDP late last year.