The Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation (PDPPCO) on Saturday ridiculed the All Progressives Congress (APC) over its one-million-man-march in Lagos, saying the party and its National Leader, Bola Tinubu, have lost control of the state.
Director of Media and Publicity of the PDPPCO, Femi Fani-Kayode, said that “the fact that what the APC boasted would be a one-million-man march could only attract about 10,000 persons is a reflection of the pitiful state of delusion that they are suffering from.”
According to Fani-Kayode, “They have lost touch with reality and with the people of the state over whom they have maintained a wicked and ungodly economic and political stranglehold for all of 16 years. But the people of Lagos have now seen through their deception and have decided to reject them at the polls this time round.
“The Lagos people have amply demonstrated their anger against the APC and its leader. Having watched the TV documentary, titled Unmasking the Real Tinubu, which exposes the plundering and privatisation of Lagos state by the sinking godfather and overwhelmed lion of Bourdillion, the Lagos people in their contempt will sink the APC and Tinubu with their votes in March.
“It is interesting to read that Tinubu asked the people at the flopped march to march for their freedom. I agree with him and the people will obey him by freeing themselves on April 11 from the political and economic bondage into which Tinubu has put them since 1999.
“We had expected that Tinubu would use the occasion of the march and the speech making at the Teslim Balogun Stadium to address the people of Lagos on how he amassed his colossal wealth and mind-boggling property which were the subject of the TV documentary on him.”
Fani-Kayode dismissed the claim by Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, that President Goodluck Jonathan has failed, like the Biblical Jonah, to deliver God’s message as the propagation of falsehood and another propaganda flip.
According to him, “What does Rauf know about the Bible? President Jonathan has performed excellently. His transformation Agenda is a divine message with which our nation is being daily developed and the transformation is manifest in all sectors.
“This is in spite of desperate efforts by the opposition APC and Boko Haram which is the APC’s armed wing, to blight the achievements of our presidential candidate, President Jonathan, with the abduction of Chibok girls, which took place in Borno State under the control of a chief security officer of the State who is an APC governor.
“We are all happy with the progress being made by the Federal Government through our armed forces who are overrunning the Boko Haram insurgents and restoring normalcy to some villages in the northeast that were hitherto captured.”
Responding to Lai Mohammed’s statement on the Chibok girls, Fani-Kayode said, “Whilst the majority of Nigerians are overjoyed by the fact that the President has given us hope by saying that the girls are still alive, Lai Mohammed and the APC are not happy.
“The truth is that they do not want those girls to be found and neither do they care about their welfare or their safety. We say this because this was a man, and a party that complained and protested at the fact that Boko Haram was proscribed by the Federal Government last year.
“Lai Mohammed proclaimed that the proscription was unjust and unconstitutional. We have always believed that Buhari, Lai Mohammed, Governor Shettima and the APC know far more about the whereabouts of the Chibok girls and the activities of Boko Haram than they have cared to admit.
“Let it be clearly understood that if anything happens to those girls and if they are not produced at the soonest we will hold Lai Mohammed, Buhari and the APC responsible.”
The Lagos State chapter of the PDP on Saturday also alleged that every person that attended the APC march received at least N5,000 each.
It said in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani, that groups that attended the march received between N1m and N10m.
The PDP said the APC was deceiving Lagosians by tagging the march as “one-million-march” because the Teslim Balogun Stadium where the walk ended, could only accommodate 24,000 people.
The PDP said during the rally, posters and billboards of its candidates were vandalised while two people in private vehicles were attacked for carrying the sticker of the PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje.
The statement read: “The PDP has described as blatant falsehood and over exaggeration of the number of attendees which the APC continues to put at one million probably to give General Muhammadu Buhari false hope in Lagos State.
“The capacity of the stadium used is 24,325 and could not have accommodated over 100,000 without stampede! The party notes that the APC was over ambitious to expect one million lovers of the APC in Lagos State at this period that the masses are disenchanted with its policies; a reason why Governor Babatunde Fashola could not attend the rally.
“The PDP posits that the realistic figure of about 11,000 APC members actually participated due to coercion or monetary inducement.
“The PDP further wants the security agencies to investigate the anomalies observed at the rally which include: Assault of persons; destruction of PDP campaign materials; use of abusive, threat, provocative speeches and songs.
“We condemn the actions of some overzealous members of the APC who participated in the Buhari/Osinbajo rally but actually deployed to unleash on the banners and other campaign materials of PDP on the rally routes.
“Lagosians in two private cars and a commercial bus were harassed and the vehicles maliciously damaged because they had the stickers of the PDP and Agbaje. We blame the APC for not curtailing the excesses of such members in order to prevent such assaults.
“The number of persons at the rally can at best be near 11,000. This is in spite our intelligence report that individual participants were mobilised with N5,000 while the groups got between N1m and N10M each.”
