The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Local Government Chairmen’s Forum in Lagos has stated the reason behind Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran’s loss during the 2023 gubernatorial election.
According to them, their candidate, also known as Jandor, lost the election due to his disregard for important advice party structures, tradition and rules.
Their comment comes amidst Jandor’s controversial claim to leadership of the Party in the state.
Condemning Jandor for laying claim to the party’s leadership structure within the state, the Chairmen via a statement at the weekend, lamented that Jandor’s selection of a deputy governorship candidate outside the party’s recommendations contributed to internal discord and ultimately led to Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s defection to the Labour Party.
The lengthy statement read, “We express our displeasure at the conduct of Jandor and his associates, the attitude of the PDP candidate had been unbecoming since the day of his declaration for the party, where dignitaries of the party, which included some sitting governors and other dignitaries of the party were present including the then sitting governors and the national chairman of the party (Senator Iyocha Ayu) were present.
“Jandor had disregarded the party’s traditions and structure from the very first day he became the party’s gubernatorial candidate. He became lord unto to himself.
“He disregarded the structures of the party, by single-handedly handpicking candidates for house of representatives and state house of assembly, thereby creating crisis within the party.
“This led to several litigation in the various local government areas, up to the supreme court, a scenario which had never been witnessed by the party before.
“Examples of local governments that were in legal log-jam two weeks before the general election were Oshodi-Isolo LG, Ikeja LG, Mushin LG, Ajeromi LG, Apapa LG, Ikorodu LG.
“Another blunder committed by him was he failed to properly reconcile with the aspirants that contested along with him for the governorship position but were forcefully step-down by ogidi led electoral committee that was sent to Lagos.
“These people paid N25million each to obtain forms. At one instance, one of the aspirants that was forced to step-down called him so that he might make some inputs into agent lists but he outrightly told the fellow that he was not ready to share his agent list with anybody and he will mainly make use of his Lagos for Lagos group.
“Two days after Peter Obi had discussion with Jandor on the issue of working with Labor Party, H.E Atiku Abubakar, our presidential candidate invited Jandor to his Abuja home on the same issue of working arrangement with Labour.
“The meeting which involved H.E Atiku Abubakar, a retired general and one other powerful northern leader. The issue of collaboration was raised and Jandor stated that he was not ready to step down for LP candidate Architect Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour and the only condition was for Gbadebo to step down for him because he has his Awori people behind him.
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“When the enlarged meeting was not making much progress on the issue of the collaboration, Jandor was asked to suggest the way forward on how they can make progress on the issue of collaboration.
“They suggested that a call should be put across to Chief Olabode George, BG, and seek for his opinion on the way forward.
“From the venue of the meeting in Abuja, a call was put to BG and other notable leaders in Lagos on the issue of working relationship with LP.
“All the leaders made it clear to them the best thing is to have a working relationship with LP. That it is most ideal and reasonable thing to do is for Jandor to step down for Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
“Because the leaders based their analysis on outcome of presidential election of 2023 where LP scored 582,664 votes as against PDP that scored 75,750 votes.
“Jandor was a misgiving to the PDP since 2022, when he joined the party, and in setting the record, he is the worst candidate in terms of performance, but also being the candidate who mostly abused the norms and structure of the party in it’s almost 25 years of existence.
“Jandor’s many sins, include his disregard for the party’s principles and traditions in the selection of the deputy governorship candidate ,as he jettisoned the deputy governorship candidate, Architect Gbadebo Rhodes- Vivour who was unanimously picked by the leadership of the party for him.
“This led to the dumping of PDP by Rhodes-Vivour for the LP. For instance,the forum of LGA chairman recommended and suggested the name of Architect Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour as deputy governorship candidate in order to have cohesion and unity of purpose within the party but he disregarded the advice(see the attached of the letter sent to Jaandor by LGA chairmen forum before he picked funke Akindele as his deputy governorship candidate.
“He disregarded the party blatantly, and went on to singlehandedly pick Funke Akindele, who was not a member of our party, and not even a politician.
“And that was what led to the cold war whic later snowballed into his trouble with elders of the party led by Chief Olabode George.
“This is a character imposed on the party by the national, if not who knew him, suddenly he became a lord unto himself. He created crisis within the party.
“He did not reconcile with other governorship candidates who contested with him which are more on ground than him before he came and got the party’s ticket, yet he had the effrontery to create crisis within the party with his interference with the emergence of candidates at all levels, which led to several litigations.
“We the PDP LGA chairman forum can no longer condone the waywardness of Jandor and warned him of dire consequences if he fails to desist from his unsavory remarks always against the leadership of the party in the state, like the recent thoughtless remark about being the leadership of the party in Lagos.
“Finally, we hereby affirm that all negative comments made against our foremost and Apex leader in Lagos, Bode George, is uncalled for and unwarranted.”
