FG should tackle election rigging, manipulation in Nigeria ― Lagos Oba

THE paramount ruler of Shomolu- Bariga, Oba Gbolahan Barudeen Timson, the Jagunmolu 3, has charged the Federal Government to tackle the issue of rigging and electoral manipulation in Nigeria, describing the menace as an albatross on the country’s democracy and economy.

The monarch gave the charge when he received the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate for Lagos State, Mr Jimi Agbaje and his running mate, Mrs Haleemat Oluwayemisi Busari, as well as PDP Trustee, Chief (Mrs) Aduke Maina, among others, in his palace.

Agbaje, who was on campaign tour of the area, according to a release by Mr Felix Oboagwina, Director of Media and Publicity, Jimi Agbaje Agbaje Campaign Organisation (JACO), later visited the Adaranijo Central Mosque, at Pedro area of Bariga, and met with Muslim clerics under the Chief Imam, Alhaji Ishaq Olohuniyo.

Oba Gbolahan, while recalling the 2015 episode, claimed that the PDP governorship candidate, Agbaje, won the poll then but his “victory was diverted,” adding that his people were already on the streets celebrating, expressing confidence that the outcome would be in Agbaje’s favour.

“Someone will win an election and the result will be given to another person. In the 2015 election, my people trooped out to dance when they saw the result of the election that it favoured PDP. Suddenly, the results were changed. When the election is conducted and another thing is announced, then this country has problems,” he said.

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“It is not as if JK did not win victory in an election before. But his victory was diverted. I salute your tenacity. Everybody knows that Agbaje is loved in Lagos State.

“Before he died, Chief Obafemi Awolowo told us that many of us alive then would not see true democracy until we died. Now his words have proved prophetic,” the monarch added.

According to Oba Gbolahan, the time has come for Lagos to experience something new in the area of leadership, positing that Agbaje represented a new deal for Lagos.

Oba Gbolahan thereafter called clerics to pray for the PDP governorship candidate.

Dismissing the anti-corruption stance of the current regime under President Muhammadu Buhari, Oba Gbolahan pointed out the contradictions in a situation where corrupt people were suddenly being “declared clean upon switching allegiance and membership to the ruling party.”

He contended that any government that embarked on a fight against corruption and neglected other areas of the citizens’ welfare could boast of no achievement.

“Any government that makes the sole pillar of its existence on hunting for corrupt people will not achieve much,” he said, querying: “Is anti-corruption what will provide food and rice on the table?”

Agbaje, in his own remark, said that Oba Gbolahan and his own family had come a long way as close acquaintances, pointing out that no one had spoken from the heart as Kabiyesi had done during the visit.

“No one has spoken from the heart like Kabiyesi has spoken today, and he has not spoken wrong. We need people who will speak truth to power,” Agbaje said, adding: “This comes without any surprise because over the years Kabiyesi has been the conscience of the society and those around him.”

Highlighting his programmes, Agbaje told those who gathered at the palace and later at the Adaranijo Central Mosque that he would restore the glory of public schools, saying that they would be upgraded to a level that would make them the envy of private ones.

He also spoke on his plans for a health insurance policy that would transfer the burden of hospital bills from the citizens to the government.

Mrs Busari said she never knew Agbaje until the offer to be his running mate was made to her, asking her fellow Muslims to pray for their success.