2023: Choice of Funke Akindele as running mate to Adediran unsettles Lagos APC ― PDP

Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it is not surprising that the choice of popular actress, Funke Akindele, as running mate to Dr AbdulAzeez Olajide Adediran aka Jandor in the 2023 governorship poll had unsettled the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state and make them wake up from political slumber “to comment on her emergence and to stoop so low to attempt to bring her person to disrepute.”

PDP said this at the weekend in a release issued by its spokesperson, Hakeem Amode, in reaction to statement by his APC counterpart, Seye Oladejo, who tackled the main opposition party on Akindele’s choice, describing it as “unserious.”

It would be recalled that Oladejo, in the statement issued a few days ago, on behalf of the ruling APC said the choice of Akindele, popularly called Jenifer for the position by PDP flag bearer, Adediran “amounts to trivialising the importance of the forthcoming gubernatorial elections by given neophytes who have absolutely nothing to bring to the table [than] their electoral tickets.”

Reacting, Amode said: “One cannot but laugh at the jitters the choice of Dr Abdulazeez Adediran sent to the party which has resulted in several recent meetings and gatherings of the APC party members and the fear which the choice of Funke Akindele has added to the already jittering party structure that led to their reactions.”

According to Amode, in the statement titled: “Our party’s choice of Funke Akindele unsettles APC in Lagos and exposes their jittery,” the choice of Akindele as running mate by PDP flag bearer, Adediran remained news that had dominated the politician space for discussions, especially in Lagos State.

He posited that the popularity and the acceptance of PDP as an alternative to the ruling APC in the state “were evident in the reactions and comments of the good people of Lagos who knows and understands the agony of an individual struggling to survive the entangled government of APC in the state.”

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PDP, while maintaining that it was little bothered why APC executive members had been seen to be unsettled with the news of Akindele’s emergence, said it would like to inform the ruling party that the table had turned, noting that “Lagos State and the good people living therein are tired of the few gathering at their lord’s table to determine the life and living standard of the people of the state.

“We hereby urge the party to see the handwriting on the wall and start to prepare the handing-over note.

“We are not surprised that the APC as a party is not finding it easy in its elusive political comfort zone and we are well aware of their antics and underhand in the previous elections and we are using this opportunity to warn the party to desist from its character assassination, divide and rule tactics and politics of bitterness which has remained the roots of their political gain,” it said.

“It is imperative to remind the APC party that our youths are well informed now and knowledgeable with information to see beyond the party APC and its government make-belief projects in the state.

“We are assuring them that archaic political bravura will not guarantee electoral victory for them, come February 2023,” the party added.

Speaking further, PDP said its deputy governorship candidate for the 2023 poll, Akindele is a graduate of Law from the University of Lagos and a holder of National Diploma (ND) from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State, adding that she is someone who knows and understands that power belongs to the people.

Besides, it said Akindele “had distinguished herself in her chosen career and had gotten the opportunity to accomplish, gracing the screen since 1997 with educative family programmes, addictive play series, blockbuster movies such as ‘I need to know,’ ‘Jenifa’s Diary’ and ‘Omo Ghetto’, to mention but a few.”

“Obviously as a woman with a pedigree of using her talented works to transform and change the mindset and orientation of the youths, her choice to launch herself into the political foray would undoubtedly stair fear in the ruling opposing party.

“Her character in all the aforementioned and other so numerous represent the everyday life of the people and especially those living in the Lagos State.

“We are, therefore, not too surprised by the sudden wake of the APC spokesman to have passed such comment on her emergence rather than commenting on the challenges currently facing the people of the state,” the party said.

The party, therefore, called on Lagosians who, it said were tired of the oppression, intimidation, lack of respect for human dignity and government of the few being perpetrated, according to it by the ruling APC in the state, to vote it out of power, come 2023 and ensure victory for the main opposition party and its candidate, Dr Adediran in order “to give a fresh breath of air of freedom and the necessary required dividends of democratic government in Lagos State.”