Olajide Adediran, a candidate for governor from the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, claimed on Wednesday that the state’s administration was obstructing the party’s ability to carry out its campaign strategy.
Adediran, also known as Jandor, said, citing orders from the state administration, that the advertising agencies hired by the party had repaid the money paid to them.
In an interview with Arise TV on Wednesday, Adediran made the accusations. He continued by saying that PDP posters had allegedly been dismantled by hoodlums with support from the state in an effort to stop the party from promoting its candidates and programs to Lagosians.
Despite the purported conspiracy of the Lagos administration, the governorship candidate claimed that measures have been made to ensure that he sells the candidacy of both he and his running mate, actress Funke Akindele, to Lagosians.
“I know them. I was coming from them. We will not seat and fold our arms and be complaining. Why I have decided to bring this to the court of public opinion is to let people know what was going on. They cannot stop us from pasting posters. We will turn it to guerrilla warfare and we will begin to go out and paste our posters,” he said.
Explaining what had transpired, Adediran added, “The moment that of Afromedia happened in Falomo here, I placed a call through to the Lagos police commissioner myself and I said to him, ‘TP, this just happened. It was removed.’ We didn’t even know, we thought it was the hoodlums who removed it. It was after investigation that we realised that it was the state government, through LASAA that removed it. The company in question did say to us, ‘They have asked us not to take anything from you. We will refund your money.” Just like JCDecaux did refund our money.
“The next day I went to the office of the police commissioner with all our team and told him, ‘Look, if you don’t step in, we may be sitting on a keg of gun powder in Lagos. We will never be allowed to be put in the defensive.
“We will continue to paste our posters. Last week on the Third Mainland bridge, which is even a Federal Government road, our people put some A4 boards. They were removing it in broad daylight. After paying for all of these. We won’t allow this, we will find a way to put our campaign materials out there.
“It is our constitutional right to vie for this office. It is our constitutional right to let the people know that we are here and ready to do things differently. Engaging in such activities on their part meant that they know it’s doom for them already and that is why they are doing everything to make sure they stop us and we won’t allow it.”
The PDP governorship candidate further addressed his selection of a running partner, stating that Funke Akindele was chosen to support his candidacy and create the necessary upheaval to overthrow the APC government in the state.
