The All Progressives Congress, APC, has boasted that the final burial of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will be held during the forthcoming local government elections in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
The state Secretary of the party, Hakeem Bamgbala, who stated this during a chat with our correspondent at the party’s secretariat, Acme Road, Ogba, dismissed the statement credited to the PDP chieftain, Chief Olabode George, that his party would teach the APC some lessons at the LG polls.
According to him, “the statement is laughable and it is an empty boast. Their party has never been on ground in the state. In actual fact, PDP is dead in Lagos State. Since 1999, have they won any election in the state?
”Forget all the big names in PDP. The likes of Bode George , Musiliu Obanikoro, Seye Ogunlewe, Jimmy Agbaje, and Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, all of them are no match for APC. Our party has always been on top. In fact, George’s threat is going to be the other way round during the council polls. APC will use the local government election to bury their party in Lagos State.”
The former chairman of Itire-Ikate Local Council Development Area, who said the PDP had lost its relevance in the state, added that the defection of six out of its eight members in the Lagos State House of Assembly to the APC, had finally puts nail in the party’s coffin.
”Many of their members are tired of the party. They are quick to say the party is at war with itself. Besides, some of them have been acknowledging the good works being done by Governor Akinwumi Ambode in the state. Even recently Chief Bode George openly praised Mr governor for transforming the state.
”If Chief George could openly commend Ambode for doing a good work in Lagos, why is he now angry with those lawmakers and other defectors from their party, who want to join hands with Ambode in the efforts to take Lagos State to greater heights?
”These lawmakers, while declaring for APC clearly stated their reasons for their defection. They said the party is embroiled in crisis and factionalised. Are these claims not true? Nigerians are aware that the party does not only have factions, but those factions are equally involved in legal tussle to determine which is the authentic PDP.
”Bode Goeorge who is making the recall threat, what is his own status in PDP? Is he a member the authentic PDP or he belongs to the fake PDP? The case to determine that is still in the court of law. So, how can he, whose own fate is hanging in the balance threaten others who have since moved on?
”If the PDP thinks Nigerians have forgotten, some of us have not. We still remember vividly how some PDP leaders in Lagos today, dumps the then Alliance for Democracy,(AD) for the PDP. Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, Musliu Obanikoro, Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele among others ditched the AD for PDP and nothing happens. Therefore, what is happening now is a clear case of what goes round comes around,’’ he averred.
