Lagos State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the last election, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, on Wednesday insisted that he remains in the party fold, describing insinuations that he had defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as concoctions of a sick mind.
Agbaje said this in reaction to statement by PDP former Deputy National Chairman, Chief Bode George, that he (Agbaje) had cross carpeted to the APC.
The PDP governorship candidate, while dismissing the insinuation, said Chief George should shut his mouth and quit the party if he lacks any value to add to it “instead of being a dog in the manger hampering the progress of the party in Lagos State.”
Agbaje, while clarifying the true position of things in a release made available to newsmen by his Director, Media and Publicity, Felix Oboagwina, described the news about the purported defection as misinformation that should be discountenanced, declaring that he had never been a member of APC talks less of his returning to the ruling APC, which he said had never crossed his mind.
“That false narrative is the product of a sick mind. Or how else do you describe someone who just sits down to concoct fiction and markets it as reality? He should tell the world where he got the news being spread around,” Agbaje said, noting that some PDP leaders, who he termed shameless, have 2023 in mind.
“The game-plan is mischievously simple: Give the dog a bad name and chase it away from the party. By 2023, this mudslinging will have scared off credible people from the party, which will leave the whole field to them to continue to corner party resources.
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“I am too big to sneak out of one party into another one. And the reality remains that I have not left PDP for any other party, least of all APC,” he insisted.
Speaking further, Agbaje blamed the false narrative about him on the same set of self-styled party leaders who, he accused of declaring support for a rival candidate on the eve of the last governorship poll.
“These are people who feel that they want to continue business as usual within PDP. All their interest revolves upon sharing campaign and election funds without giving any thought to how to elevate the partyā€™s chances at the polls or adding value to the process,” he said, adding that as long as the PDP National Headquarters continued to pamper the divisive characters and pander to their whims, so long would the party continue to fail in elections in Lagos State.
This was just as he recalled the alleged frustration encountered by former party chieftain, including late Funso Williams, Muhammed Muritala Ashorobi, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Moshood Salvador, Femi Pedro, among others who had wanted to elevate the party in the state.