VP Sambo, Fayose, Other High Profile Mercenaries Join the Scramble
THERE is a growing concern that Lagos Area Councils may go into bankruptcy in their
helmsman’s quest to raise about half a billion naira, inspired by an obsession of Mr. Tinubu with unseating the incumbent governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.
The news is coming in the wake of a reported constitution of a committee of strange political bedfellows by the party at the center, the Peoples Democratic Party, to join the scramble for the coveted Alagbaka Government House.
Although Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria and the Peoples Democratic Party spend so much time coming after each other in criticisms, they now seem to have found a common cause in trying to unseat Mimiko.
Sharpedgenews.com’s investigations have also revealed the readiness of some contending political parties in Ondo State governorship contest to adopt a break or burn strategy.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, in spite of its poor visibility across the state, according to allegations made available to different sources, has moved in logistics and personnel from outside the state “who would deploy overt and covert strategies to declare victory.”
And the PDP has validated what was initially treated as a mere speculation by naming Vice President Namadi Sambo and former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, as campaign co-ordinators in a state where both men are non-indigenes.
The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, which has consistently maintained a distant third in respected opinion polls on the Ondo State election, is allegedly relying on “false assurances” from Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who is the governor of Osun State, to ensure that Ondo State burns if it cannot be electorally wrestled from incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
Both the Peoples Democratic Party and the Action Congress of Nigeria sources deny any plan to visit mayhem on Ondo State, saying people are attracting too much meaning to the “normal political rhetorics that must be expected.”
However, Mimiko’s supporters claim that even if the high-level importation of high profile mercenaries like Sambo and Fayose by the Peoples Democratic Party can be excused, “what about how Aregbesola and Tinubu who are openly encouraging thugs and police to intimidate their Labor Party supporters?”
The directive from the leadership of the Action Congress of Nigeria for local government councils in Lagos State to make available 7 million naira each to prosecute the party’s electoral war in Ondo State is the latest in a series of desperate moves.
The Eko Citizens Forum, an assemblage of Lagos indigenes, raised the alarm on Thursday in a statement signed by its President, Fisayo Frantos, declaring that it made the move to enable the public know how the resources of Lagos is being plundered.
Describing the ACN’s ambition to capture Ondo state as an impossible mission, the group alleged that all the 57 local councils in Lagos state were compelled to donate N7m each “to the Operation Capture Ondo State purse, using a camouflage dustbin purchase as a decoy at the end of which about N.5b was realized because some councils considered very buoyant were made to pay more than N7m.
“All the councils were instructed to make the said amount available under the guise of supplying them with dustbins with the Bariga LG boss, Sulaiman Omoyele Hakeem a.k.a Oris as the co-ordinator,” the group said.
Declaring the move as “illegal and a systematic way of robbing Lagosians of their resources,” the group said “we believe the money will eventually end up in some people’s personal account because we all know it is impossible for the Labour Party government to be defeated in Ondo state, so why using decoy to siphon our own money?” the Forum queried.
“Ondo people should not see Lagosians as enemy. The foe here is the leadership of the ACN which we hear has also instructed all other Southwest state’s in its control to make some amount available for the same purpose.
“We are alerting Ondo people to be vigilant and we are still investigating details of our resources that have been channeled to run Osun state because the fact that the ACN leader and its Chairman are from Osun does not mean hard earned money of Lagos tax payers should be used to run the state.”
The group said it is criminal and high level deceit for a party that prides itself as democratic and yearning for the betterment of the country to divert money meant for the good of the people of Lagos state to pursue fruitless goal.
“There is no doubt that the councils need dustbin in the face of the decadence in our Urban pride, but why should money collected for the purpose of the goal be diverted to capture another state where its government is reputed to be among the best in the country.Will the people of that state watch a good government slip off them” the assembly asked rhetorically.
The group thus called on “the people of Ondo to resist usurpers under whatever guise. We also call on Lagosians to stand up and challenge those looting you blind.”