Lagos PDP ready for July 22 LG poll —Chairman

LAGOS State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has insisted that the local government poll holding on Jul 22, 2017 in all the 20 local governments and 37 local council development areas (LCDAs) in the state must come up, saying the exercise must not be postponed irrespective of the crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Aggrieved APC aspirants to the councillorship and chairmanship posts together with their supporters across the state are currently spoiling for war, and organising protests, among others, alleging imposition by leadership, with the party yet to roll out final list of its candidates for the election.

Chairman of the party, Chief Segun Adewale, who addressed journalists at the PDP secretariat at Sogunle, Ikeja alongside the secretary, Mr Jide Ladeinde, affirmed that the PDP was very ready for the council election, saying that it was very obvious that the APC was not so ready.

According to Adewale, the APC is only waiting to sit somewhere and write the result of the election in its own favour, contending that the ruling party should not even be allowed to participate in the poll in a sane society, giving the fact that it currently does not its candidates’ list ready because it never held any primary.

“When you look around the states, you see our posters, you see our banners, and our candidates are campaigning everywhere, we are ready.

“We know they are not ready, but they are ready to rig the election. They just want to sit down somewhere and write the results and we are also planning how to counter that. We are very, very ready to win that election.

“We are insisting on election, I hope they would not try it (postponement). We know they are yet to submit their names and I am sure they are not ready for the exercise. Ordinarily, in a sane society, they shouldn’t be allowed to participate in this election because this is a party that has refused to conduct their primaries. This is a party that is yet to have list of their candidates ready for an election that is coming around the corner. I hope they would not try it. They would not try to postpone it. I just hope so,” the PDP chairman said.

Speaking further, Adewale, who belongs to the Ali Modu Sheriff group, maintained that the PDP in Lagos remained united, saying no division existed in the fold.

He stressed that majority of those who defected to the Labour Party (LP) to contest on its platform were never totally for PDP, but were working for the ruling APC while they were in PDP.

“You see, the people that went to Labour Party, if you look at them from the beginning, 99 per cent of them were not part PDP. They were in PDP but working for APC. That is why I continue to say that in Lagos PDP there is no division.

“The people that went were the same people that were working pari pasu with the APC from the beginning. So to us here, it is good riddance to bad rubbish,” he said.

Also speaking, the party secretary, Ladeinde assured that the Lagos PDP was quite ready for the forthcoming council election, saying, “We had collected and properly returned LASIEC forms for all the councillorship and chairmanship positions in Lagos State and are totally prepared for the election.

“We are, therefore, not in any alliance or merger or any other form of association with any other political party be it Labour Party or Accord Party or by any other name for purpose of forthcoming election.

“For the sake of clarity and emphasis, we hereby declare that the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State is not divided and neither is it in any untoward relationship with any other party. We are totally loyal to our great party and would never leave it for any other place irrespective of anything that happens at the national level,” he said.