Agbaje Goes SOLO, Shuns Party Bigwigs In Campaign
There are indications that the cracks in the leadership of the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic may have informed the decision of its governorship candidate, Mr Jimi Agbaje, to operate without the support of the party’s bigwigs in the state.
SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that Agbaje had assembled his campaign team without any input from the party’s leadership including a former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Olabode George.
It was further learnt that as a result of the development, George and some PDP big shots in the state were not involved in the ongoing campaign of the Lagos PDP governorship candidate.
A source within the party, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the development was the outcome of a deep-seated disagreement between Agbaje and George, which began in 2015.
But the Director of Media and Publicity, Jimi Agbaje Campaign Organisation, Felix Oboagwina, denied that Agbaje did not involve the PDP stalwarts in his campaign activities.
According to him, the state party chairman is the deputy head of the campaign council, which Agbaje heads.
“The instruction from the national head office of the party is that every state should have a campaign council headed by the governorship candidate and the deputy will be the state chairman of the party. There have been successful series of meetings with all stakeholders,” he said.
Commenting on the development, the National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “The campaign is structured in a way that in a state like Lagos, where we do not have a governor, the governorship candidate should lead the campaign.
“As a matter of fact, there is a structure for states and national on how they are going to run the campaign. So, it will be difficult for me to believe that there is no party backing in Lagos State except there are other issues that are not known to the National Working Committee and the Presidential Campaign Council.”