Laure Beaufils, the British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria, paid a courtesy call on Jimi Agbaje, the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday.
During the meeting, Agbaje updated the Deputy High Commissioner on the activities and hopes of his campaign, including areas of collaboration between Lagos, the commercial nerve centre of Africa’s most populous country, and Britain.
Responding to Beaufils’s question on his conviction of winning the election, Agbaje told the envoy that he is confident of unseating the ruling party in Lagos in next year’s election because his campaign message resonates more with the Lagos masses who believe he is best qualified to free Lagos from pseudo-democratic rule.
He said: “If a survey is conducted today, you’ll discover that the outcome will reflect that the campaign message resonates soundly with the ordinary people who are the majority voters they yearn for freedom from the old order of doing things in Lagos.
“They want to cast their ballots to ensure a people’s Lagos, not a one man’s Lagos.
“This will guarantee an electoral victory for us at the polls.”
Besides, Agbaje assured the envoy that he is pushing out the message to the electorate in Lagos to protect their votes.
He said this is needful because the Presidency has consistently refused to sign the amended Electoral Bill.
Additionally, Agbaje told Beaufils the challenges made to useful nuggets of wisdom to turn the political tide of Lagos around for the benefit of all Lagosians in the 2019 gubernatorial election further.
The PDP gubernatorial candidate enjoined the government to collaborate with relevant agencies to protect the security and privacy of the voter while casting their ballots on election day.
Doing this will safeguard the voter and thwart intimidation tactics being put in place to discourage the electorate from voting him on election day, Agbaje said.
Though Agbaje promised to eschew violence in his campaign and since his foray into politics expressly forbid his supporters from doing so, he warned that the will of Lagosians should be allowed to reign supreme in this election or the people could react violently if pushed to the tipping point.
Moreover, he advised Lagosians: “Eschew violence, do not attack but defend yourself.”
Additionally, Halimat Yemisi Busari, his running mate, explained that the campaign message: “Freedom for Lagos,” represents freedom from tyranny, bad roads, poverty, poor health, hopelessness and frustration with the system.
Buhari said it encapsulates the desire to emancipate Lagos from the throes of these negative indices that force the campaign to rest on a tripod of liveability, aimed at bettering education, health, culture, infrastructure, geared towards making the economy targeted at generating employment opportunities through empowering small and medium scale industries in order to drive employment and ease of doing business in Lagos so that Lagos can continue to attract investors.
In her remarks, Beaufrils expressed Britain’s appreciation to Agbaje for his desire to run an issues-based and peaceful campaign.
She expressed her readiness to discuss Agbaje’s concerns with the Independent National Electoral Commission when she meets with officials of the electoral umpire soon.
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