Old and new associates of former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said they are resolved to work together and ensure total victory for the main opposition party in Lagos, come 2023 general elections.
Atiku’s allies gave this vow after rising from a meeting, which was held in Lagos at the weekend, featuring the accreditation and sensitisation of several politicians and professionals carefully selected as Democratic Special Scouts.
The selected scouts, according to a statement made available to newsmen by Pastor Kayode Jacobs on behalf of the Coordinating Council, were expected to cover the entire state from Local Governments (LGs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), to wards and voting units as a backup and support base for the party in its efforts to mobilise and police votes at every polling units.
Coordinating Leader and Southwest Secretary of PDP, Hon. Rahman Owokoniran, while addressing the gathering comprising Chief Coker Onita, Prof. T. O. Ishola, among others, said it was now clear that APC in Lagos in 2023 would be defeated, adding that PDP would shock APC with sweeping defeat.
“It is now clear that we are ready and getting equipped to trounce APC in Lagos in 2023. We will shock them with sweeping defeat.
“It has been done before and we are going to do it again,” he said.
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Owokoniran, who was visibly elated with the quality of people in attendance, said what would happen in 2023 polls was going to be a repeat performance of how victory was delivered to General Shehu Yar’adua, with superior strategy and assemblage of committed men and women.
“It was not magic, this was how we started, some of the then young foot soldiers are here with us still very vibrant, the strategy is potent, the commitment is electric, and thank God for the new Electoral Act and the BVAS; the executive arrogance, coercion and manipulations producing false electoral victories in Lagos over the years will be finally laid to rest,” the PDP chieftain vowed.
Chief Dapo Sarumi, in his message delivered to the gathering, emphasized that what was being done was to reproduce the contemporary version of the political machine of those years that produced many of today’s players and recent political history in Lagos.
Sarumi opined that Atiku is the only one that is not a gamble among those being put forward for the presidency, saying Nigeria cannot afford any trial presidency in the face of her current challenges, even as he advocates unity and comradeship with all interests within PDP.
Owokoniran, while commissioning the Special Scouts to the local governments and LCDAs, explained that the movement that was being put in place, whose name, character and composition, according to him, will be unveiled at a ceremony by end of August, would push to the background, the issue of groups that kept robbing PDP of victory over the years.
He assured that the movement was a melting pot for all leaders and members of the party and new entrants committed to the PDP victory project.
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2023: We will shock APC in Lagos with sweeping defeat, Atiku allies vow