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| Jimi & Jide. |
The governorship
candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Jimi Agbaje, has
lambasted his All Progressives Congress counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for
giving rice gifts to civil servants on the premises of the government
secretariat ahead of next Saturday’s governorship election.
A stampede occurred
during the struggle for rice at the government secretariat on Thursday shortly
after Sanwo-Olu and other APC leaders met with civil servants.
In a statement by his
Director, Media and Publicity, Felix Oboagwina, the PDP candidate said
Sanwo-Olu’s gesture was appalling.
Agbaje described
Sanwo-Olu’s meeting with civil servants at the government secretariat as an
abuse of privilege and an attempt to manipulate the civil service which ought
to be apolitical.
He said, “We find the
invitation and the rice gift appalling, opportunistic and illegal. In a
political contest of the nature in which Sanwo-Olu and the rest of us are
involved, he has been offered an undue advantage. An uneven playing field has
been created. And this is condemnable and contemptible.
“The gesture goes
against Nigeria’s bureaucratic statutes that forbid civil servants from
romancing politics. For crying out loud, there are still regulations preventing
civil servants from involvement in politics. That invitation and the rice gifts
are a violation of those extant rules.”
Agbaje said the APC
designed Sanwo-Olu’s rice gift to bury 20 years in which Lagos officials had
been treated like trash and subjected to sordid conditions like nepotism,
over-taxation, denial of promotion, delayed promotions and deprivation of leave
and end-of-year bonuses.
He alleged that civil
servants who maintained a neutrality and refused to show up for the meeting
stood the grave danger of being marked down for discrimination and
intimidation.
According to him, it
was to maintain neutrality and decorum that soldiers and Police were similarly
barred from involvement in politics, and politicians prevented from campaigning
in uniformed personnel’s barracks and formations.
“It is a shame to see
civil servants struggling and hurting themselves just to get a small bag of
Sanwo-Olu rice, but it is even more shameful to subject the crop of Nigeria’s
middle-class to such an indignity,” Agbaje said.
The PDP candidate also
berated the APC for sending police and thugs to bar a “Free Lagos” Press
Conference slated for the Lagos Airport Hotel in Ikeja.
“It is the mother of
all ironies that, on the same day that APC organised an illegal meeting for its
candidate, it was sending a combined team of cops and hoodlums to dislodge an
event organised by bona fide Nigerian citizens,” Agbaje noted.
On Police and thugs
aborting the event organised by the Orange Movement for a Free Lagos State,
Agbaje said the cancellation violated the fundamental rights of the citizens to
associate and hold opinions, as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.
The event ran under
the theme, Setting Lagos Free from Bourdillon Bondage, #OtogeLagos.
The statement read in
part, “It is an assault on freedom of speech. And every day, we witness the
frontiers of Nigerians’ freedom being eroded by a privileged minority that
takes special delight in subjecting citizens to impunity and corruption.
“The APC further
assaulted our collective freedom by Thursday’s order to Police to bar an event
where Nigerians wanted to legitimately express themselves.
“We roundly condemn
the APC for this. And we call upon all Nigerians and the international
community to condemn this high-handed and draconian clampdown.”
Pan Igbo
socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Lagos chapter has dumped the governorship
candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and adopted the governorship
candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu for
the March 9 governorship election in the state.
It said the outcome of
February 23 presidential and National Assembly elections makes it necessary for
the Igbo in Lagos to realign their position before the governorship polls.
Ohanaeze said both the
APC and PDP candidates are Lagosians, adding that the Igbo have no reason to
fight over, but look out for the candidate that will protect their interest.
Ohanaeze made these
declarations at a town hall meeting of stakeholders at the Muson Centre, Lagos.
President of Ohanaeze
Lagos, Chief Solomon Ogbonna, said Igbo in Lagos decided to vote the APC
candidate because “he is a leader that will be there for us and he is a man we
can trust.
“Babajide Sanwo-Olu is
the best thing that can happen to the Igbo in Lagos; he is a God sent to the
Igbo. We must not waste this opportunity. That is why we must come out en mass
on Saturday, March 9 and vote for Babajide Sanwo-Olu.”
Ogbonna while
regretting the harassment of Igbo traders in parts of Lagos after the
presidential election, urged them to be more united and show love and concern
to the plights of one another as it is only through love and unity they can be
protected.
Ohanaeze demanded
“assurances and guarantees” from Sanwo-Olu that there would not be a repeat
attack on Igbo businesses after the governorship election.
Speaking, the
Publicity Secretary of APC in Lagos, Joe Igbokwe, said a lot is at stake in
Lagos and that the Igbo will not play with what they have.
“We don’t have a
quarter of the investments we have in Lagos back at home, so we must protect
it. Come Saturday we must come out and vote Sanwo-Olu, and his running mate,
Obafemi Hamzat; they have what it takes,” Igbokwe said.
Sanwo-Olu, who was
accompanied by the APC deputy governorship candidate, Obafemi Hamzat, said the
governorship election is about the future of Lagos State and those sowing seeds
of ethnicity to divide the people.
“The election is not
about us, it is about the future and the people that want to use ethnicity to
divide us. We must not allow events of one day to determine our future.”
Sanwo-Olu also
promised to run an all-inclusive government that will cater for all.
“From day one, we said
it that our government will be all-inclusive. We are about development. The
assurance I give you is that this election is about the future. The election
will come and go but our lives will continue. My government will not be looking
at what part of the world you are from, it will be about the greatest happiness
of the greatest number,” he said.
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