PDP Mocks APC, Tinubu over Clashes During Voters’ Registration in Lagos

* Tinubu’s candidacy, victory for Nigerians, says Sanwo-Olu *Ndigbo not under any attack in Lagos, Ohanaeze clarifies Gboyega Akinsanmi and Segun James

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday mocked the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the clashes witnessed in some parts of Lagos State during the voters’ registration exercise, explaining that it was because the presidential flag bearer of the party, Senator Bola Tinubu, is afraid of transparent elections.
But the President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in Lagos, Chief Solomon Aguene Ogbonna, has debunked the allegation that the Igbo indigenes were under attack and prevented from obtaining their voters’ cards in Lagos.
Ogbonna asserted that contrary to the claims in social media, the Igbo have no threat to their peace in Lagos.
“There is nothing like that.  What appeared to have caused the rumour is the problem arising from the collection of voter’s cards, the leader of all Igbo in the state,” has said.
Ogbonna appealed to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to intervene in the matter so that the Igbo in Ojo, Ikotun and some other suburbs in Lagos can get their cards without stress at INEC registration centres.
This is coming as the Lagos State Governor, Sanwo-Olu, has said the emergence of Senator Bola Tinubu as the APC’s presidential candidate was a victory for Nigerians.
A senior lawyer, Mr Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), has however accused Sanwo-Olu of abandoning his constitutional duties to be the unofficial campaign manager of Tinubu.
The main opposition party also said Nigerians were disturbed by the dastardly action instigated by leaders of APC to prevent citizens, particularly people of the South-east region resident in Lagos State from collecting their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) to enable them to vote in the 2023 general election.
A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Debo Ologunagba, said the action by the APC in Lagos was part of its desperate design to use violence to sabotage free, fair and credible elections in 2023, having realised that Nigerians have rejected its presidential candidate, Tinubu, ahead of the polls.
According to the PDP, “Asiwaju Tinubu has been in morbid fear of the soaring popularity of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, hence the attempt by the APC to stop Nigerians from obtaining their PVCs to vote in the elections; an action that portends serious threat and danger to our democratic process.
“Is it not an irony that the party of the government of the day that pretends to have the support of the people and professes continuity is busy chasing away prospective voters?” the party queried.
Ologunagba said the APC is already suffering from pre-election fever syndrome in trepidation that it cannot win in a free, fair, credible and transparent process where Nigerians are allowed to freely express their will.
“It will also be recalled that a similar act of violence was unleashed on Nigerians in the Isolo axis of Lagos in the 2019 general election, where the APC, upon discovering that it has been rejected at the polls, openly sponsored and unleashed terror on innocent citizens and destroyed all votes cast.
“The APC has again become chaotic and desperate because Nigerians have recognised it as what it is – a Special Purpose Vehicle, which was hurriedly put together to defraud the nation.
 It warned Tinubu and the APC to thread carefully and rein in their thugs, hoodlums and terrorists as they would be firmly resisted by Nigerians.
Meanwhile, Sanwo-Olu said Tinubu’s victory was a victory for Nigerians. He stated this yesterday at the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport when he returned from Abuja after the APC primary.
“We are happy that at the end of it all, it is not a win for Lagos alone, it is a win for Nigeria, it is a win for all of us. It is a win that cuts across the Niger, it is a win for the North, for the East, for the West, for the South,” he said.
According to him, Tinubu’s victory at the primary signals the beginning of greater work, to ensure he wins the presidential election in 2023.
“His win also signifies the beginning of more work. You can see that almost immediately after winning the primary, he has gone ahead to open his hand of collaboration and reconciliation to all other aspirants.
“He is going around to consult, to bring forward his brothers and sisters, telling them it is not something that one person can do. He will lead from the front, but he needs everyone on the journey,” he said.
Sanwo-Olu said that Tinubu would use his experience, clarity of knowledge, and transformational leadership to make Nigeria work.
Sanwo-Olu commended President Muhammadu Buhari for ensuring an open, transparent, free and fair contest, during the APC presidential election.
The governor said the choice of Tinubu as Buhari’s successor was not out of expediency but a deliberate effort by Nigerians to bring forth a unifying and detribalised figure to succeed the president and create a new path of progress.
However, a senior lawyer, Adegboruwa accused Sanwo-Olu of abandoning his constitutional duties to be the unofficial campaign manager of Tinubu
Adegboruwa, a member of the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Restitution for Victims of SARS-Related Abuses, lamented that the governor was not available to monitor the enforcement of the ban on commercial motorcycle operations.
He faulted the governor yesterday in a statement titled “Sanwo-Olu and Governance in Recess,” pointing out that the governor was not elected “as Campaign Manager of politicians but as an administrator.”
Adegboruwa, therefore, urged the governor “to return to Lagos and assume his constitutional responsibilities of functional governance.”