• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

2019: Accord Party adopts Agbaje as Lagos governorship candidate

Jimi Agbaje-Accord-Party

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Lagos State chapter of Accord Party (AP), has adopted Jimi Agbaje, the gubernatorial candidate of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state as its governorship candidate.

The party also welcomed about 20,000 members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), who defected to it.

Announcing the party’s endorsement of Agbaje at a reception of the new members held in Ikeja, a former chieftain of APC in the state, Sunday Ajayi, said Accord Party considered Agbaje’s experience and track record in its decision.

He declared that all the defecting members of the APC had the interest of Lagos state at heart and were determined to wrestle it from the hand of an individual who believes that the state was his personal property.

Ajayi reminded the members of the events that took place at APC’s primary elections in the state, “where one man felt that without him no one will rule Lagos State. We want to show him that he is no longer a grassroots man.”

“Look at what he did to an incumbent Governor Ambode. They said he was not a party man, but he was a party man in 2015,” he added.

Ajayi further said that Accord Party’s plan was to defeat APC, and demonstrated what would become of the ruling party in Lagos and the other 35 states of the federation, when he took a broom (the logo of APC), broke it into pieces and tore the flag of the party, to connote its demise.

Accord Party’s gubernatorial candidate in the state, Sunday Ajose, who stepped down for Agbaje, said that he took the decision because he observed that Agbaje had a better capacity to deliver Lagos state from APC stronghold and make it better for all.

Speaking at the event, Agbaje applauded Ajose’s decision to step down for him, describing it as a sign of his large heart. He promised that his victory would be for PDP and for all Lagosians.
“It takes a man of character to have got an office, and accept that there is a bigger picture, and agrees to step down for somebody he feels has a better chance.”

A Board of Trustees member of Accord Party, Adebayo Adeniyi, expressed delight that Lagosians now understand that their freedom was necessary, wondering why a particular party powered by one man would hold a state to ransom for about two decades.

 

Iniobong Iwok