It has just been brought to my attention that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disqualified 21 of the 40 House of Assembly candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State because its officials did not monitor the exercise that elected them to fly our party’s flag in the March 11, 2023 State Assembly elections.
These are candidates who are not only experienced in grassroots mobilisation but dedicated members of our party in the Centre of Excellence.
They have been campaigning to ensure that the wasteful and corrupt APC government is voted out in next year’s election so that our people can have a new lease of life.
According to INEC, “The PDP State House of Assembly primaries did not hold in the following LGAs – Agege, Apapa, Badagry, Epe, Ibeju-Lekki, Ikorodu, Lagos Island, Mushin, Ojo, and Surulere. The electoral committee members failed to show up in some of the LGAs. The PDP primaries was not monitored in Alimosho LGA because it was not conducted at the designated venue forwarded to the LGA”.
When I heard the news, I was livid and the questions being asked by party members are: Where is the National Chairman of PDP, Senator Iyorchia Ayu? As the originator of the crisis in the Lagos State chapter of PDP, what is he doing to clear this political mess? How is this anomaly going to be rectified?
I know he was in the Senate, in fact, he was Senate President, when the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, was also in the Red Chamber in the Third Republic, but has it come to this?
Is Ayu, in conjunction with his cohorts, now working for Tinubu to ensure his victory in Lagos?
What are these gormless people who are struggling to lead the party in Lagos, doing to ensure that the 21 candidates are on the ballot?
Are they not culpable in this open robbery of these hardworking candidates
who have just been told they can’t contest next year? Why were INEC officials not invited to monitor the exercise, or in some cases, who changed the venues without informing INEC? Have these gluttons prepared their minds from the beginning to ensure that our candidates are disqualified so that votes can go to APC?
What is the governorship candidate himself, Jide Adeniran (Jandor) doing? Are they all working for APC?
What type of colossal embarrassment is this?
Their house is leaking and instead of fixing it, all of them are rushing to Abuja like hungry and shameless jesters to become DG of Atiku Campaign Team in Lagos.
Why are these characters shameless?
When I was warning these fake leaders, they didn’t listen. Now, they have created a mess.
Lagos is the largest electoral state in Nigeria with more than seven million voters.
The managers in Abuja must drive those scheming for DG and other positions in the Atiku Campaign Committee, in the State, to come back home and redeem the home front.
The disqualification of 21 out of 40 House of Assembly candidates, through the fault of Ayu and other so-called leaders, is the beginning of failure for the party in Lagos State.
*Chief Olabode Ibiyinka George
Atona Oodua of Yorubaland.
