Ahead of the March 18 governorship election in Lagos, Labour Party, LP’s governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour has said he is expecting the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the state to collapse its structure and join him to save Lagos.
The LP candidate, popularly known as GRV, said this in an exclusive interview with Politics Hub, a Vanguard online TV’s show on Tuesday.
GRV also expressed hope that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, will oversee a transparent electoral process, while stating that he is “prepared for the worse”.
He said: “I have a relationship with the PDP. I came from the PDP. I was in the PDP for six years. I was the senatorial candidate for PDP in 2019.
“I had the most votes in the party. I know the leaders in the party. We understand that at a practical level, we need to have as many people working together, especially because this election process is not free and fair.
“They promised us electronic transmission of votes, that did not happen. We saw the intimidation and harassment, and manipulations at the ward collation, LG collation.
“So we need everybody to work together to save and rescue Lagos. We are in talks with several parties.
“A few parties have collapsed their structures for us. I expect that the PDP would do the same very soon.”
On INEC, he remarked, “We have got an injunction and a court order to mandate the INEC to follow its rules that it has set out and failure to do that, the entire election is null and void.
“So they must do the election transmission of voting from the polling units. That is on one hand.
“On the other hand; we know that a lot of these people might be compromised. Just like the last election, it was very shameful, to say the least.
“So we are hoping for the best but we are prepared for the worst, and we are moving into this election with the idea that what happened previously will repeat itself again. So we are ready for any outcome.”
GRV also called out the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for evading public debates, saying it is ‘disrespectful’ of a governor who ‘owes it to the people’ to ‘account for his stewardship’.
He dismissed rumours questioning his ethnic heritage to Lagos, describing it as an insult to a Rhodes-Vivour.
“I mean it’s an insult, it’s a big insult first of all. The Governor is actually extremely disrespectful; he is extremely disrespectful to Lagosians because after they gave him the position for four years, you owe it to them to come and account for your stewardship. Be it a debate or whatever.
“To add to that is that a man from Ijebu is questioning a Rhodes-Vivour. I mean my great-great grandfather was the first Nigerian-Lagosian that was admitted into government in this country under Governor Bourdilion’s government; after which was Adeyemo Alakija, you then have Doherty.
“So when you see me and Funsho Doherty, it’s almost like history repeating itself. These are old Lagos families.
“To bring this kind of disrespect because you are desperate; if you had done the job well, you wouldn’t need to intimidate or suppress people’s votes.”
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria