We Won, Says ACN Secretary

The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria has described the Lagos State PDP as half clever swindlers that are desperate to employ childish blackmail and mere tricks to reap where they have no deposit.

The party urges Lagos PDP to live with the reality that it is alien to Lagos as its awkward claims of electoral relevance have never been proven by the political reality in Lagos.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the party’s Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party said that the claim by the PDP, a party that is writhing in the pains of death in Lagos and the South West, that it won some local councils in last Saturday’s local government and its attempt to heat up the polity in the hope that it will be rewarded with favours it never merits is childish.

It insists that while the party awaits LASIEC’s official announcement of result on the local government polls, it still maintains that PDP does not exist in Lagos and does not have the goodwill to win one LCDA in the election.

“We have noted the desperate scam arts of the members of Lagos PDP, a party that does not maintain any real presence in Lagos, in its effort to blackmail the state electoral commission to issue it with unmerited favours in last Saturday’s election. We want to assure Lagosians that a desperate group like Lagos PDP, fully aware of the level of rejection it commands in Lagos, cannot do anything to change the legitimate will of the people.”

“We want to make Lagosians aware of the antics of Senator Musliu Obanikoro, who was on a desperate and dangerous mission to force down the electoral wish of his son as the chairman of Obalende/Ikoyi LCDA. We note that throughout the election, Obanikoro was actively involved in several acts of security breach in his desperate mission to enforce this selfish mandate. For this, he was moving around, with armed thugs, scaring people who were on their legitimate missions, and heating up the polity in Lagos and to generally foment trouble for this selfish mission. He was moving around in a tinted vehicle, bearing diplomatic numbers and was actively involved in the bid to organize demonstrations when it was obvious from returns from the polling booths that his son has woefully lost the election. We note that in extreme desperation, Obanikoro and his thugs have invaded the Ikoyi/Obalende LCDA and we see such illegal act as an exercise in futility.

“Equally, we want to alert Lagosians of the alleged role of the Oba of Badagry and some of his chiefs who have been instigating and fomenting troubles, in cahoots with PDP hierarchy in the Badagry area. We want to let them know that the Lagos State government is aware of these security issues and will hold any one who disturbs the peace and security of any part of Lagos, responsible for his actions.

“Lagosians will rightly ask where a party that is notorious for its dubious history of woeful performance and mind boggling corruption sourced the new found flavour to claim that it won an election against an ACN that has led the massive transformation of Lagos at a period the PDP had wrecked the nation and the states under its control.

“ For a party that lost a general election in Lagos last April so woefully that it did not get a single state assembly seat, its ludicrous claim of winning some unknown councils in Lagos is as outlandish as it is meant to blackmail and nothing more. The syndication of a rag tag group of PDP members to protest the alleged attempt to divert such unknown victory is a tactics we know so well of the PDP and will not be allowed to prevail against the oft-repeated resolve of Lagosians that Lagos is out of bound for the PDP and its known penchant to wreck.

“Lagosians will not forget in a hurry how the PDP levied war on Lagos for creating additional local governments and 37 LCDAs, to the extent that local council funds in Lagos were withheld for several years with the intents of paralysing Lagos and punishing its workers. That the party is now laying claims to winning these LCDAs is ridiculous for Lagosians know all the facts and will happily repay PDP with their open rejection, as they have consistently shown. So what should surprise any observer of Lagos politics is the claim by PDP that it won these councils it levied war on for more than ten years.

“Lagosians know the antics of the PDP, which went as far as posting fake and fabricated results on the internet in April 2003, which claimed that it won the governorship in Lagos, when the collated results show that it lost woefully. They know that the PDP made similar claims in 2007 and 2011 general elections and is repeating same again in election into local councils it has devoted all its time fighting against. It just chose a wrong time to advertise its well known deadly desperation to conscript Lagos to its vassal territory; a desperation that will never be realized.

“For the record, Lagos ACN has done its homework and is awaiting the announcement of the results. We are not protesting anything as Lagosians attest that the conduct of last Saturday’s election was very credible and meets standards that are alien to the PDP controlled states where local council elections are mere formality to announce the stated wishes of the PDP state governments. We know, from the returns we are getting from our field officers, that once again, the good people of Lagos have re-affirmed their total confidence in the ACN and their total rejection of the hemlock that is PDP. So Lagos ACN has no plans to protest. We have plans to celebrate but we warn those who are on a do-or-die mission to plunge Lagos to crisis because of their jejune and selfish interests that Lagos has the capacity to deal with them.

“We urge Lagosians to be calm and await the official announcement of the election results by LASIEC. We urge them not to be provoked or ruffled by the childish antics of the desperados of the PDP and we urge them to be watchful and report any incidence capable of compromising the cherished peace and security of Lagosians to relevant security agencies as we promise them that their electoral wishes will not to altered to satisfy a brood of desperate political swindlers.”