*PDP statement infantile, highly inconsequential – AbdulHakeem AbdulLateef says
*As LASG says governor won’t be distracted by call
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Lagos State has called for the disqualification of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in the coming 2019 governorship election over alleged violation of the Electoral Act.
The party faulted the recent three million man march for Governor Ambode insisting that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not lifted the ban on political campaigns in the country.
In a statement by its publicity secretary, Mr Taofik Gani, the party said: “Unless INEC and Police exert their powers to guarantee credible election by at least giving their opinions on the recent three million man march for Governor Ambode, we shall deem the 2019 Lagos governorship election as already rigged for APC.”
The party also called on INEC and the Police to be unbiased, nonpartisan and assertive “as we go into the 2019 general elections by using the disqualification and needful arrests of all those who are initiators, perpetrators and intended beneficiaries of pre-election malpractice capable of also overheating the polity and provoking confrontations and violence.”
But reacting, Lagos State Government has described statements by the state PDP, that it would defeat the APC in 2019 governorship poll as “infantile and highly inconsequential.”
The state’s Commissioner for Home Affairs, Dr. AbdulAkeem AbdulLateef, made the remark at the weekend, during the third Iju-Ishaga Health Day held in Lagos.
He said the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode-led administration would not be distracted by statements made by the PDP. He said: “I want to assure Lagosians that Governor Ambode will not be distracted by the statement by the PDP. He will not be distracted by political Lilliputians whose current retrogression has compelled them to operate as dysfunctional silos.”
The party said it was hinging the said call to disqualify Governor Ambode and APC from participating in the 2019 Lagos governorship election on the heels of the self-confession of a group ‘Itesiwaju Ipinle Eko Vanguard’ led by one Mr. Seyi Bamigbade that they organised a 3 Million Man March for Governor Ambode’s reelection in 2019.
According to the party, such exercise at this period is a breach of the electoral act and elections guidelines as INEC has not declared political campaign permissible.
It stated that “we strongly believe that the exercise must have been directly induced, midwife and sponsored by the state government, using Lagos tax to overreach other persons and political parties in the 2019 elections.
“It is also laughable that an acclaimed performing governor can be so jittery of reelection that over 12 months to the contest, he is already using state funds to jump-start campaign even against the Electoral Act and good conscience.
“Though we know that the claimed 3 Million Man March is a fluke and propagandists, since they have made the self-confession, then Mr. Seyi Bamigbade and his members of the organising group should be arrested for electoral misconduct.”
