The Peoples Democratic Party Lagos State governorship candidate, Olajide Adediran, on Wednesday, alleged that the Lagos State government was working in the background to prevent the party from executing its campaign plans.
Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, alleged that the advert agencies contracted by the party had refunded the money paid to them, citing instructions from the state government.
Adediran made the allegations while speaking during an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday. He added that posters pasted by the PDP were allegedly removed by state-backed hoodlums in a bid to prevent the party from its candidates and programmes to Lagosians.
The governorship candidate, however, said that plans are been put in place to ensure he sells his candidacy and that of his running mate, actress Funke Akindele, to Lagosian despite the alleged plot of the Lagos government.
“I know them. I was coming from them. We will not seat and fold our arms and be complaining. Why I have decided to bring this to the court of public opinion is to let people know what was going on. They cannot stop us from pasting posters. We will turn it to guerrilla warfare and we will begin to go out and paste our posters,” he said.
Explaining what had transpired, Adediran added, “The moment that of Afromedia happened in Falomo here, I placed a call through to the Lagos police commissioner myself and I said to him, ‘TP, this just happened. It was removed.’ We didn’t even know, we thought it was the hoodlums who removed it. It was after investigation that we realised that it was the state government, through LASAA that removed it. The company in question did say to us, ‘They have asked us not to take anything from you. We will refund your money.” Just like JCDecaux did refund our money.
“The next day I went to the office of the police commissioner with all our team and told him, ‘Look, if you don’t step in, we may be sitting on a keg of gun powder in Lagos. We will never be allowed to be put in the defensive.
“We will continue to paste our posters. Last week on the Third Mainland bridge, which is even a Federal Government road, our people put some A4 boards. They were removing it in broad daylight. After paying for all of these. We won’t allow this, we will find a way to put our campaign materials out there.
“It is our constitutional right to vie for this office. It is our constitutional right to let the people know that we are here and ready to do things differently. Engaging in such activities on their part meant that they know it’s doom for them already and that is why they are doing everything to make sure they stop us and we won’t allow it.”
Furthermore, the PDP governorship candidate clarified his choice of running mate, saying he had chosen Funke Akindele to solidify his ticket and cause the needed upset to unseat the APC government in the state.
PUNCH
