Tope AbdurRazaq Balogun, the governorship candidate of the Action Alliance (AA) in Lagos State, says he did not attend the 2023 gubernatorial debate organised by The Platform Nigeria, because he wasn’t invited.
NEWSBREAK reports that the Lagos State governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olajide Adediran (Jandor); Labour Party, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, and African Democratic Congress (ADC), Funso Doherty, on Sunday promised to end thuggery and decrepit healthcare if elected.
They also promised to provide solutions to waste management and decongest traffic in the Apapa area of the state.
The candidates stated this during The Platform Governorship Debate, organised by the Covenant Christian Church, held in Ikeja on Sunday and monitored by this news medium.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate and incumbent Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had in a statement signed by the state Commissioner for Information, Gbenga Omotoso, opted not to participate in the debate stating that he would “henceforth shun any forum that may require us being together with PDP and its agents of violence.”
Balogun who said the yardstick for picking just four out of the 16 candidates contesting at the March polls, was unclear, also said the organisers didn’t respond to his inquiry.
“I was not invited and the criteria for choosing only four among the 16 of us is not clear.
“I sent in [sic] a message to them to ask for the criteria used in selection and I never got a response.
“We moved on since and have been having opportunity to appear on so many other platforms,” Balogun told NEWSBREAK.
On the Surulere political violence which reportedly claimed the lives of three people, and prompted blame-trading from the two main political parties, the APC and PDP, the AA candidate said both are guilty.
“They are both culprits on exchange of violence and their action as well as reaction were precipitated on failure of government on the issue of security.
“They both seem to be “Siamese twins” as coin of same face in the area of mismanagement of the younger generation as they both give room to breeding of touts and thugs. So the counter blames are just face-saving,” Balogun submitted.
Discussion about this post