This is as the National Executive Committee, NEC, and the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the party may be looking towards the South-West to produce a replacement for the PDP national chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu.

The move followed the insistence of camp of Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, on the need for Ayu to step down following the emergency of former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as the presidential candidate for the PDP in the 2023 election.

It was reliably gathered from a source that as part of the move to resolve the animosity within the party following the choice of Delta State governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as Atiku running mate, Wike’s group had suggested that Ayu should be replaced with former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

READ ALSO: Wike speaks on meeting with Tinubu, Atiku, Obi, others in London

The choice of Mimiko as the national chairman was however said to have been criticized by some members of the party who cited the former governor’s inconsistent membership and ‘nomadic disposition,’ as a strong reason.

Mimiko had defected from PDP to Zenith Labour Party before returning to PDP.

With Mimiko unlikely to be considered for the highest position in the party, both Dr. Eddy Olafeso and Mr. Jimi Agbaje remain the top contenders.

“Though both of them are from Ondo State, we will rather prefer Dr. Eddy Olafeso, a onetime Commissioner in Ondo State as the new national chairman, but the Wike group are objecting to it, saying that Dr. Olafeso was a man Friday of the former national chairman’s man, Prince Uche Secondus, and by extension Atiku Abubakar’s man too,” the source said.

Those in support of Olafeso gave as reason for his qualification, his contributions to the success of the party in the South-West in the 2019 elections which produced Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, and several federal lawmakers in the zone, the spirited fight in 2018 in Osun State which laid the foundation for the emergence of governor-elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke, recently.

It was also gathered that some loyalists of Wike are proposing the appointment of Taofeek Arapaja as acting national chairman of PDP, even though the names of Agbaje, Olafeso may be presented to Atiku in the next few weeks.

The source said, however, that Olafeso could emerge as the next PDP national chairman before October.

Recall that the PDP crisis escalated after Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, was unveiled as Atiku’s running mate on June 16, especially since consequent upon the emergence of the Waziri Adamawa as the party’s presidential candidate at a period some leaders wanted the South to produce the president.

Atiku’s emergence in the race which produced Wike as runner up, threw the spanner into the wheel of the party, with Wike threatening to leave and various moves to reconcile all parties have failed.

Atiku had last Thursday met with Wike in London alongside governors of Abia, Benue, Adamawa, and Oyo States and other PDP stakeholders including Donald Duke.

Wike’s insistence on Ayu’s resignation, sources said, would balance the leadership of the party in which all the top national positions in the PDP are being held by members from the northern zones of the country.

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The group called on the people of the state to vote for him.

The campaign was launched in a statement signed by representatives of the different ethnic groups that make up SMBLF.

They are Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere; Prof. Chigozie Ogbu,  Ohanaeze; Senator Bassey Henahaw, PANDEF and Dr Isuwa Dogo, Middle Belt Forum.

The group said its reason for endorsing Agbaje was in furtherance of its campaign for restructuring of the country.

The group said the position of Lagos was crucial to the development of Nigeria that the choice of who became the governor should be of concern to all.

The statement issued reads:

The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (Afenifere, Ohanaeze, PANDEF and Middle Belt Leaders Forum) in furtherance of its resolve that Nigeria must be restructured has considered the strategic importance of Lagos to the Nigerian project and makes the following observations:

1. Lagos was the Secretariat of the anti-colonial struggles where Nigerians from various nationalities worked together for our independence;
2. Nigerians from all sections worked together from the city in the valiant years of anti-military struggles that gave us the civil rule we have today;
3. The cosmopolitan mix of Lagos will continue to make it the barometer to gauge the political temperature of Nigeria .

Flowing from the above, we cannot be indifferent to who governs Lagos at this critical stage of our national life.

We have looked at the build-up to Saturday governorship elections and it is clear there are two leading candidates.

Of the two one belongs to a political party that stands on the way of restructuring Nigeria and therefore cannot be in our consideration.

The other candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje of the Peoples Democratic Party has for over 20 years been involved in the struggles to rearrange Nigeria as an Afenifere man and we have no reservations in encouraging our people to choose him as Governor of Lagos in the March 9 election.

We call on all nationalities in Lagos to come out to exercise their franchise without fear or favour .

We warn those who made it a task on February 23 to harass and intimidate Igbo people in Lagos from voting and troubling them after the elections to desist from their genocide-prone activities as we stand on the resolve of the SMBLF that “an attack against one is an attack against all”.

Lastly, we ask the security agencies not to bend to any political interest like it happened on February 23 when they watched as thugs loyal to a political party harassed Igbos and burnt their votes .

They must know that when state actors behave in such a way, they are inviting people to embrace self-defence.

Enough is Enough!(Oto ge! Ozugo!)

The post Lagos guber: Afenifere, Ohanaeze, others state reasons for endorsing Jimi Agbaje appeared first on Frontpageng.

Agbaje said the trend had been for the ruling forces dominating state affairs in the last 19 years to shortchange land owners and resell to land speculators for a pittance.

On some occasions too, he said, they entirely dispossess the landowners without an appropriate compensation package.

Agbaje made the claim at the weekend when he addressed residents of Ibeju-Lekki.

He was accompanied by his running mate, Mrs. Haleemat Busari.

Agbaje reiterated his vow that the Lekki Toll Gate would cease to exist as soon as he took over power in Lagos State.

He stressed that land usurpers in power could not be allowed to continue business as usual as they dealt in injustice.

His words:  “They have taken over all your land here.

“What is happening now in Lagos State is that land owners are shortchanged and their land stolen. These people are after what they can get from investors, not after the interest of the citizens. They tell the people that they have negotiated on their behalf and they pocket the lion’s share of the amount collected from investors. Should we continue this way?”

According to him, land owners in the state would only get their proper entitlements with the overthrow of the present political system in the coming elections.

“Land management process in Lagos State has been done in a manner that has continued to benefit members of the privileged cabal in the state and this is not right. Ordinarily, what a sincere government ought to do is to midwife a deal between land owners and the investors who should pay the appropriate compensation to the owners. The arrangement we have now is that these people collect money from the investor and pay pittance to the indigenes and this has been the root of the crises between the indigenes and the numerous investors in the state,” he said.

Bemoaning the state of infrastructural decay in the area, he observed that the road from Ibeju-Lekki to Epe had failed to be developed beyond the efforts that the state’s Second Republic Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, put in place since 1983.

He also bemoaned the fact that the zone could only boast of two government-owned secondary schools, which, he pointed out, were a far cry from the needs of the children in the area.

Agbaje promised that his government would provide more schools with state-of-the-art facilities, as education featured on his list of priorities.

“Our priority when we come into government is education. All schools will be well-equipped. In Lagos today, pupils sit on the floor. If we fail to train our children well, we have no future. Our education will be premised on that of Chief Obafemi Awolowo,” he promised.

“Gone are the days when government schools were better than private schools. We must go back there,” he added.

He said the people’s electricity needs would be met as he planned to increase power generation by 3,000 megawatts by the end of his first tenure.

The PDP candidate thereafter paid a courtesy visit to the palace of paramount ruler, Oba Olusegun Bamidele Salami, Ogunbase I, the Onibeju of Ibeju land, where he and Mrs. Busari were showered with prayers.

Committing the politicians’ aspirations into the hand of God, Oba Salami said: “By God’s grace you will get there. People will want you. You will not fall into error. When you get there, you will remember us. May you know peace. You will get all the help you need. God will promote you. You will not work in vain.”

Agbaje also assured the monarch that his government would urgently ensure that the mini water works, built by Jakande across the state were revamped to provide potable water supply to residents.

In his welcome address, the PDP candidate to the Federal House of Representatives, Prince Wasiu Elemoro, had earlier at the town hall meeting, urged his people to remain steadfast in their support for his party.

He said with PDP government, there would be progress.

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