At Lagos PDP Rally yesterday (Sunday) in Ibeju-Lekki, from Left, Jimi Agbaje, Mrs..Sarurat Abulkarim (his Running Mate), Lagos PDP Chairman, Chief Olabode George
….As Agbaje Bemoans Sufferings Of Epe, Badagry Residents
A former National Vice Chairman(South) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, has slammed the Presidential Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, for avoiding President Goodluck Jonathan in a national debate.
George spoke at a rally the party hosted in Epe, where the PDP Governorship Candidate, for Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, decried the sufferings of the people and designated the town as the heart of an ocean economy.
George said: “Why will you have a Presidential Candidate who cannot address the people? Whyis Buhari running away from debating? Democracy is government of the people, for the people, by the people –not government for Bola Tinubu and his family.”
He asked Buhari to explain to Nigerians why he jailed Chief Adekunle Ajasin, Second Republic Governor of Ondo State, whom the former PDP National Vice Chairman, said had been innocent of all legations levelled against him.
According to the PDP Governorship Candidate for Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, the ocean economy of his programme would be headquartered in Epe, and an industry for food processing would be established in the town, which would serve as the hub of seafood supplies to Nigeria and West Africa.
Famous Fuji Musician, Obesere, yesterday showed up at the campaign train of the PDP, thrilling the dancing crowd with familiar and political tunes.
Hinting at Epe being the controversial origin of his archrival, Mr. Ambode of the APC, Agbaje said: “There is a man whom I have met severally at debates, and they said the man is from here, that he is your son, is he from here?”
The crowd shouted NO!
He retorted: “So you mean that next time I meet him, I should tell him that you denied him?”
He promised to complete the Lekki-Epe expressway, as well as solve the six-year electricity problem plaguing the community, saying, a caring government would not wait for five to six years to solve the people’s power headache.
He said: “I want you to quote me: When we come in May 29, you will not pay the toll at the Epe-Lekki toll gate anymore.” He also promised to provide water and employment.
According to him, the February elections were a struggle for freedom, and he urged the people to collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards in order to ensure that their will was done at the polls.
From Left, Lagos PDP Chairman, Captain Tunji Shelle, Jimi Agbaje, Mrs..Sarurat Abulkarim (his Running Mate), at a rally in Ibeju Lekki on Sunday
Speaking in Badagry, where a mammoth crowd of admirers and supporters turned out to welcome the political train on Saturday, Agbaje said the Badagry and Egun people had been sidelined for too long in Lagos State politics and in infrastructural development.
According to him, it was in the spirit of redressing the marginalisation of the zone that a daughter of the zone got chosen as his running mate.
Agbaje said his Running Mate, Alhaja Safurat Abdulkarim, would not be treated as a “handbag” Deputy Governor, when they got into office.
“My Deputy Governor and I shall do this work together,” he said. “I did not choose her just because she is Egun, neither did we choose her because she is a woman. We chose her because she is an experienced politician. It was made to look like Badagry had no quality person. But when we came here, we saw that Badagry and Egun are filled with quality materials.”
According to Agbaje, Mrs. Abdulkarim’s appointment demonstrated that his government would recognise merit, and Nigerians with quality and ideas, would be searched out and appointed into positions.
The Running Mate, Mrs. Abdulkarim, said Badagy had suffered under the present administration.
“We in Badagry voted in 2003 for PDP, and since then, suffering and marginalisation have been our lot. They refused to appoint anyone from any one here a Commissioner.’
According to her, Agbaje was a Moses, who had come to alleviate the sufferings of her people, and Lagosians must reject the APC in the coming elections.
Mrs Abdulkarim said: “Are you going to vote for those who oppressed okada operators? Are you going to vote for those who have refused to pay the national minimum wage of N18,000 and have continued to pay N12,000 with impunity? Are you going to vote for the party of someone who made his wife a Senator, his daughter the market leader, and who has abandoned bonafide indigenes and imported an alien to rule over the indigenes? Agbaje is a true son of Lagos. God who delivered Israel has sent us a Moses.”
Lamenting the dearth of industries in Badagry, she said, under PDP, the town would be turned into an industrial hub to exploit the markets of Togo, Benin and the entire West African sub-region to the benefit of the Nigerian economy.
Urging the electorate to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan, she said he had achieved much for Nigeria.
She said: “Do not be deceived. They have come to you with their brooms. They went to look for someone who truncated democracy and they want to impose him. They are vouching for a 72-year old, and describing a 58-year old as too old. They say he will put our security in order, who started the insecurity and Boko Haram in the first place? Whom do they want to deceive?”
