The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Abdul-Azeez Adediran popularly known as Jandor, has ruled out any chance of an alliance with his Labour party counterpart, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, saying that there is no point sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
Jandor said that the PDP discovered that Rhodes-Vivour still has a candidacy case at the Supreme Court with the likelihood of legal issues coming up in post-election litigation.
This was made known on Monday night by Jandor while appearing on a Channels Television program, Politics Today, where he put to rest any hope of an alliance with the Labour party.
Jandor said that when his project started some years ago, it was beyond a desire to become governor.
- He said, “If it’s to be governor, I could have been governor where I was coming from, but I chose this route.’’
Rhodes-Vivour has a candidacy case at Supreme Court
Jandor noted that when talks of an alliance started flying around, the PDP tabled the matter, “even though we (Gbadebo and I) haven’t sat together to discuss it”.
- He added, “We came ourselves to look at the issue and say, ‘Within us, what do we want to do? Do we want to put an end to a dynasty that has held us by the jugular for over two decades? Where do we go from here?’”
According to him, the party decided to analyse every issue critically.
- He said, “We now discovered that the Labour Party candidate still has a case on his candidacy which is currently at the Supreme Court, we looked at it again that the Labour Party candidate also has an issue with Section 77 of the Electoral Act, which says if you’re leaving a particular party to another one, you must have been there, at least, for one month, that is, the party register would have been with INEC 30 days before that party primary.’’
Explaining that the legal issue could come up in post-election litigation, he said he would rather not be “sitting on a keg of gunpowder”.
- Jandor added, “For us, we don’t have a problem, we would have said [to Rhodes-Vivour], ‘Go [on], let’s just take this [APC] government.’
- “But knowing full well who we’re dealing with; we know the kind of character we’re dealing with, we know what can happen – there’s no point sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
- “So, for us, we want an alliance; we don’t have any issue with it. But we must put our best foot forward. We must make sure that we go into this election without any snag whatsoever.”
For catch up
- Recall that yesterday, the Lagos State chapter of PDP said that its governorship candidate in the March 11 elections will not step down for any candidate.
- It also stated that it is not officially discussing with the Labour Party any possible alliance ahead of Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections, describing reports that Jandor is considering stepping down for Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour as false.
- The party stated that the statement credited to Rhodes-Vivour came as disrespectful to PDP, saying no one could lay claims to the ownership structure of the PDP.