PDP will produce next Lagos governor –George, Mimiko

Mimiko
| credits: File copy

A South-West leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George has said the next governor of Lagos State will be a member of his party.

Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko; and a former Ogun State Governor, OtunbaGbenga Daniel, who are still members of the Labour Party, also promised to help the PDP to “capture” Lagos next year.

The politicians said this at the presentation of the Mandela Icon Award to George by the National Association of Nigerian Students on Thursday.

The event was also the “fundraising for the flag off of students and youth coalition for President Goodluck Jonathan in the South-West zone ahead of 2015.”

George, who described his incarceration in Kirikiri Prison for alleged contract splitting as “political persecution”, said he would free the people of Lagos from the shackles of the All Progressives Congress just like Nelson Mandela freed South Africans from apartheid after his release from prison.

He said, “We shall produce the next governor of Lagos State. But I am not deluded. I am not Mandela. Nobody can be.

I was also unjustly incarcerated. But God is greater than all of us. I am vindicated now.”

Also speaking, Mimiko, who is rumoured to have tacitly defected to the PDP from the LP, described the political atmosphere in Lagos as one based on “propaganda.” He, therefore, promised to assist the PDP in every way possible to actualise its dream to take over Lagos.

He said, “I can see, I have the gift of clairvoyance that by 2015, we shall come to celebrate with Chief Bode George when he has produced the next governor of Lagos State. You better believe it. I am speaking under divine inspiration.

On his own part, ex-governor Daniel, who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for alleged financial impropriety, said it was unfortunate that Lagos had never been ruled by the PDP before despite the fact that George is an indigene of the state.

He said, “In 2000, the Yoruba nation was in quandary and we had a President (Obasanjo) who had no political support in his home. So Chief Bode George led us to tour Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti and everywhere and the PDP won everywhere in 2003 but in Bode George’s state. It now behoves on all of us to understand the concept of one good turn deserves another and now that he is no longer as strong as before, we must stand by him to ensure that he can swear in the next governor of Lagos.”

Some other prominent figures at the event were: a former Governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Alao-Akala; a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, DimejiBankole; a former Minister for Works, Chief AdeseyeOgunlewe and governorship aspirants in the state.