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“This time round, we intend to take over Lagos in 2019. The campaign for Lagos is set for us. It is clear to us in Lagos that what Lagosians are looking for is freedom from the vested interests that have gripped Lagos for nearly 20 years.”
The Lagos State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Jimi Agbaje, has said that the people of the state are tired of being led by one man.
He, therefore, said that voters in the state “are gearing up for a change,” vowing that the PDP would win the 2019 governorship in the state.
Agbaje spoke in Abuja on Tuesday when he visited the national headquarters of the party.
He said, “We are getting ready seriously for elections and we just came out of the national convention stronger as a party.
“We have to congratulate ourselves that we now have a Presidential candidate and we also have a Vice Presidential candidate.
“This time round, we intend to take over Lagos in 2019. The campaign for Lagos is set for us. It is clear to us in Lagos that what Lagosians are looking for is freedom from the vested interests that have gripped Lagos for nearly 20 years.
“We have a situation where it had been under the grip of one or two persons and we are tired of that.”
Though Agbaje said Lagos “is doing well” when compared to other states, he nevertheless added that the state could do better.
He said his campaign would centre on how to free Lagos State from the grips of those he said had been holding it in captivity.
He said, “We believe Lagos is doing well compared to other states but it can do much better than is doing now but it is being crippled by vested interests.
“Things that could have been done differently are being done in a different manner and that is slowing down the progress and that is what the campaign is set against.
“Free Lagos campaign is a campaign that Lagos can be better and that the alternative can be a lot better than it is today.
“The structure is being put in place and I am sure that at the end of the month, it is going to be a victory for the PDP in Lagos and at the centre and in most of the states that we lost.”
Agbaje said that the PDP performed well in the 2015 governorship election, adding that those who voted for the party then would be ready to vote for it again.
In 2015, Agbaje, who was the governorship candidate of the PDP, was defeated by the incumbent Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, of the All Progressives Congress.
Ambode will, however, not feature as a candidate in the 2019 election having been defeated by Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu during the APC governorship primary.
Agbaje said, “There is a lot of confidence (in the PDP now) and don’t forget that in 2015 and irrespective of what happened, that votes we had in 2015 still remain intact. Those that voted for us are still there for us.
“The strategy is to expand that base in a way that we have every assurance that we are taking Lagos.”
Speaking on a former chairman of the party that was said to have resigned from the PDP, Agbaje said such an action would not affect the fortune of the party.
He said the defected former chairman had nobody to follow him when he joined the APC.
He said, “He left on his own. If you go alone, I don’t know how that will affect the party in any way. If he was really somebody that has a structure or followers, you will expect the followers to go with him but when you leave as one person, it means you are of no effect on the party.
“We have not felt anything with his departure and it will not affect us. We have not had defections from the PDP in the last few years.”
