Hundreds of residents staged a peaceful protest in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, on Wednesday over the alleged stoppage of a federal hospital renovation project facilitated by Senator Saliu Mustapha, the lawmaker representing Kwara Central Senatorial District.
According to Just Event Online TV the protesters, drawn from various communities across Ilorin East Local Government Area, converged at the Awodi Primary Healthcare Centre, the proposed site of the project, before marching through major roads to express their outrage.
They accused the Kwara State Government of deliberately frustrating developmental projects facilitated by the Senator for political reasons.
Carrying placards with inscriptions such as “Development is not a crime”, “Don’t play politics with our health”, “Turaki is working, let him work”, and “Kwara deserves better”, the demonstrators called on the federal government and the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to intervene and end what they described as “an unprovoked war against progress.”
The protest follows the decision by the Chairman of Ilorin East Local Government Area, AbdulWasiu Agbelere, to halt work on the multi-million Naira renovation of the Awodi health facility, a federal project facilitated by Senator Mustapha. In a widely circulated video, the council boss was seen addressing a gathering declaring that the renovation was disapproved because of the dues between the Senator and the Governor.
The action has drawn criticism from residents, traditional leaders, and civil society groups, who see it as part of a broader pattern of political hostility between the Governor and the Senator.
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