The PDP Governorship Candidate, Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor), has appealed to the Inspector General of Police, I-G Usman Baba, to take alleged attacks on his campaign trains very seriously.
Adediran at a news conference on Sunday evening also called on President Muhammadu Buhari, and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to intervene in the attacks.
Adediran’s campaign train had been reportedly attacked by political thugs in Badagry, Ikorodu, Agege, Kosofe and Surulere, leaving some of his followers wounded and vehicles smashed.
It was also reported that the attack on Friday in Surulere was the third attack in succession where suspected hoodlums were said to have fired guns and destroyed some of the campaign vehicles in Adediran’s convoy.
Clearing issues around various attacks, Adediran noted that his change of campaign strategies by going to the people through his ward tours to sell himself to them had exposed him and his followers to huge threats and harassment from political thugs.
“I have a constitutional backing to go everywhere to campaign for this election.
“Many of the people attacked are here because these attacks are not about me but the people, hence the account we are giving now.
“At Surulere, the moment I stepped out of the mosque, these boys came and began to shout where is jandor and started to shoot everywhere, I entered my car and we drove away.
“The thugs hijacked one of our cars. Before we knew it all our campaign vehicles were damaged and the party secretariat was also damaged.
“We still want Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Baba to take these happenings in Lagos State very seriously. Police should please live up to its constitutional responsibility of protecting our lives and property,” he said.
Adediran, who noted that his team had severally reported all the attacks to the police, said that there were video clips and pictures for all the attacks.
He lamented that in most of the places, political thugs were also in the habit of harassing and dispersing the people in various wards for waiting to receive him.
Adediran explained that his running mate, Ms Funke Akindele was also chased out of the Fruit Market in Kosofe by thugs while some other mounted a road block against his passage in the same council and resort to throwing stones and bottles against him.
“We will go out there and continue with our campaign. We don’t want anybody to harass us, we don’t want to be intimidated.
“I have been speaking to the people, interacting with artisan, professional and religious groups as well as various associations and stakeholders. We were attacked in Badagry, Agege, Kosofe and Surulere in Lagos.
“All these happened in Lagos, Our expectation was that the Chief Security Officer of the state would have addressed the people of Lagos and condemn the attacks in its entirety, but nothing of such happened.
“We believe that they (the ruling party) actually want to use these to scare us away from not embarking in the ward to ward tour. We will forge ahead,” he said.
Urging no one to twist the story, Adediran said that his followers could not have attacked the people he wanted to sell his manifestoes to anywhere, as being peddled in some quarters.
According to him, his team will not succumb to any threat from anywhere but will got out and engage the people at the grassroots, telling them what he wants to do differently if emerged.
Adediran said that political actors should not resort to violence but allow the people of the state to select their leaders.
Stressing that party had written official petition to the IGP on the attacks, Adediran urged the police not do the needful.
Also speaking, Mrs Aduke Akinde, one of the PDP leaders in Iponri in Surulere, who noted that the party members were preparing and waiting to receive Adediran and his team, when the masked political thugs drove in and destroyed the rented canopies and chairs on Thursday.
In her comment, Mrs Idowu Adeniyi (Iyalaya), a trader at fruit market in Kosofe LGA and PDP member, added that since the foiled attempt of Akindele to campaign in the market, the market authorities had not allowed them to enter their shops again.
“Up till now, no opportunity to enter the market. We plead for help, we are being threatened since Tuesday. Our fruits, apples and bananas would have rotten now,” she said.
In his remarks, Pastor Philips Aivoji, the Lagos State Chairman of PDP, said that there were so many other attacks on PDP members in the state not reported in the media.
Aivoji, who noted that many PDP members in rural places were being threatened, said that election should not be a do-or-die affairs.
“These cannot deter us, we will continue to forge ahead because we believe we are in the side of the people. We are not going to be intimidated,” he said. (Shadanpamarepoters)
