New Telegraph

Kuye: PDP’ll defeat APC in Lagos East by-elections

Chief Taiwo Kuye is a member of the South- West Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Caretaker Committee. In this interview, he speaks on the forthcoming Lagos East senatorial by-election, the state of the PDP in Lagos, among others. WALE ELEGBEDE spoke with him

How prepared is your party for the forthcoming senatorial and state House of Assembly byelections in Lagos State?

We are very prepared, we’ve been moving, we have lined up so many events for the election. Last Monday, we opened our campaign office somewhere in Somolu, and we inaugurated a lot of committees about eight standing committees that are going to be in charge of the campaign and election and other very serious issues. Also, the leadership of the party is not resting on their oars, members of the Board of Trustees and every other leader, with particular reference to the leader of the party in the South-West, Chief Olabode George, has been tremendously assisting the party to galvanize support for the candidates. We’ve been working throughout the local governments to realise the dream. So, we are very hopeful of winning the two seats in the elections, considering what happened in Edo State. If we have a level- playing ground, the elections are winnable for us, and we promise that we will win the elections, confidently, we would win.

Looking at the situation on ground; are you not starting your campaign late as the senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, flagged off his campaign long ago?

We don’t have to kick-start the campaign at the same time. While he kick-started, moving about, we know what we are doing, we are not losing sleep, we are not playing, we are doing something else. So, we have started, we have all our campaign people on ground in each of the local governments, and the campaign committees are on the ground throughout the 71 wards of the senatorial district. So, working very seriously, it is not about noise in the public in campaigns, we’ve been working, our strategy is a change strategy, we have to depart from their strategy, very far away from their strategy. So, we are strategizing on our own side and we are doing what is measurable with the elections and I can comfortably tell you that we are going to win both elections.

You are expressing a lot of opti-mism, but looking at Lagos State since 1999, PDP has never ruled the state and it appears that people are looking at the state as an APC state. So, what message are you bringing out to ensure that PDP wins the polls?

Let me disagree with you on that. Since 1999, we have not been having a clear-cut election in Lagos State and I am saying it for the umpteenth time. We have been contesting against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies in Lagos State. On a good day, APC and even those before the party was formed, never defeated us here on a fair note; that is under free and fair elections. Even when Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was president; the party was faring well, we had ministers and legislators, among others.

So, it is not as if we have not been winning. By 2003, we had House of Representatives members, ditto in 2007. In 2015, we had eight State House of Assembly members and six House of Representatives members, but because of disloyalty to the party, how can you be somewhere and say you remain the only one standing in the party in the Assembly and you say because other people are there, you are forced to be there, it’s not possible.

If you are damn too loyal to the party, if you are a core loyal member of the party, you will remain. It is even an achievement for you to remain there alone. On what is on ground at the moment, you can personally assess this government in the past six and going to seven years.

Everybody can see; it is very obvious to Nigerians what we have garnered in Lagos and at the centre, where President Muhammadu Buhari calls the shots; everything is zero. Buhari promised lots of things but nothing has been delivered. The roads are bad, market women, peasants, traders are crying. Even the corporate world in the country, everybody is suffering in silence.

So, what is the achievement of such a government? Everybody now in the various states, particularly Lagos are yearning for a very articulate and progressive change and not change by deceit that APC and Buhari brought to the country. They want the right change and the right change is on the way. By the time we hit the road and defeat the APC in the coming by-elections, we will kick-start from there and that will be the end of APC and the lordship of Bola Tinubu in Lagos.

You said there has not been free and fair elections in Lagos State and that PDP has been contesting against INEC and the security agencies. What strategy are you going to adopt this time to ensure victory for your candidates?

We will continue to shout as we have been shouting and the Edo election is a case study. It is a case study for us. We want what happened in Edo State to happen in Lagos. If it happens in Lagos, everything would be in order, the police should be fair to us and they should go after all the thugs they are using to rig election. Let me tell you anyway that nobody has a monopoly of stupidity, so we are going into the election with a tougher stand. If any thug comes to polling unit to harass anybody, we would stand our ground and repel any harassment from any quarters. We have the people to support the PDP and that gives us the confidence that this election is a win for the party. So, what we need from the government is a level playing field.

How do you address the issue of disloyalty on the part of members of your party; has that stopped, if it has not, what is the party doing to curb it?

It has not stopped but we are up to the task. I want to praise the national leadership of the party under Prince Uche Secondus, it has been working relentlessly to see that it deals decisively with any action of indiscipline or disloyalty by any member of the party. You saw what happened a few days ago when a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, came here, lambasting the party leadership in Lagos State.

What has happened?

He was warned by members of the party that the next time he comes to the soil of Lagos for any assignment, he would be shown the stuff of Lagos. Fayose is down in Ekiti, he has lost control there, he has been beaten blue and black by Senator Abiodun Olujimi, he cannot stay in Ekiti and the next thing he considers doing is to come to Lagos and start harassing leaders of the party in the state. It won’t work, and right from that day, he has been declared a personal- non-grata. So, when next time he comes to Lagos for any political assignment, he would be shown the stuff of Lagos.

What is the position of the party’s national headquarters on the issue; have you reported the matter to it?

We have reported the matter and communicated our grievances to the headquarters of the party.

Given what happened, can you sat that your party is a united front?

Nobody is fighting anybody; PDP is one in Lagos.

What is your message to Lagosians ahead of the by-elections?

In my speech at a recent function, I appealed to Lagosians but the situation may not even need much appeal this time around. If you conduct an opinion poll, you will realize that Lagosians have been deceived in the last 21 years, but today “e don do, o to ge” because Lagosians have become wiser than before. The Tinubu oligarchy and his men are going to be crushed and we are ready. We have appealed to the government as well as INEC; we have appealed to all the various security organs, they should be fair to all. When they are fair to everybody, we are sure of winning. We have the people on ground as Lagosians are with us. APC has never won a free and fair election in Lagos State. In 1999, it was a zero affair. In 2003, it was a government already in the making for PDP, but one week to the election, Funsho Williams was murdered and that was how the election was lost but as much as God is alive, those who did that would never go unpunished.

Read Previous

Nasarawa Assembly not a rubber stamp – Omadefu

Read Next

Appointment of justices: Senate clarifies exclusion of S’East

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *