PDP accuses APC's Babajide Sanwoolu of intimidating Lagosians with his long motorcades

NIGERIA's main opposition the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Lagos State gubernatorial candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Babajide Sanwoolu of intimidating the people of the state with his long motorcades.

In February, Mr Sanwoolu will be standing for governor against Mr Jimi Agbaje of the PDP and a few other candidates including Babatunde Gbadamosi of the Action Democratic Party. However, according to the PDP, Mr Sanwoolu is already behaving like a governor as he goes around the state with long motorcades that force motorists off the road and intimidate political opponents.

Taofik Gani, the publicity secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the PDP, said: "Mr Sanwoolu drives around the state using sirens in his convoy and harassing motorists. We have had several complaints from motorists about this attitude of his. Is Sanwoolu going to be a bully governor on us, we ask.

In contrast, Mr Agbaje does not use sirens as we only move with some bodyguards to guide him. Also,  he moves with directors of the Independent Campaign Group and party faithful to meet with residents, we don’t harass nor intimidate residents of the state and in fact, we obey all traffic rules and regulations and ensure that none of the residents’ right is infringed upon."

Also, the PDP has accused the APC of stealing its ideas, claiming that Mr Sanwoolu's purported plan to install WiFi within the Lagos State University (Lasu) is one of the major campaign promises Mr Agbaje has been promoting since 2014. According to Mr Gani, whereas Mr Sanwoolu is restricting the project to only Lasu to be used within a timed period, the original idea by Mr Agbaje remains to install free, safe, unlimited, fast WiFi connections in all public schools, especially tertiary and secondary institutions and in conducive public areas of the state.

He added: “We alert Lagosians to reject his mediocrity and never vote for him as Sanwoolu is not self convinced in this race, he does not have any original idea to develop Lagos State, he is only being propelled by the APC chieftains who will cage him to enrich themselves alone because indeed they manipulated the APC governorship primary to ensure his vindictive emergence."

However, Sesan Daini, the director of media and publicity of Mr Sanwoolu’s campaign team, said: "I don’t know the yardstick Jimi Agbaje has to measure someone’s preparedness but one thing that I know is that a pointer for anyone aiming to do something comes from his antecedent.  Since 2002, Mr Sanwoolu has been serving the state and that showed he doesn’t need to embark on any tutorial on governance before vying for public office as he understands the system. 

“He is not like someone that has not vied for the post of councillor and thinks he can govern Lagos. As far as Babajide Sanwoolu is concerned, he is prepared to implement the manifesto of the party."