The Guardian (Nigeria)

PDP urges Tinubu to proscribe APC’S extortioni­st, militant groups

- By Seye Olumide

LAGOS State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) has charged the Governor’s Advisor y Council ( GAC) of the ruling All Progressiv­es Congress ( APC) and former governor of the state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is also the leader and founder of the council, to be courageous enough to proscribe all militant and extortioni­st groups being used to achieve selfish political motive in the state.

In a statement yesterday through its state’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani, the PDP, while reacting to the recent banning of all groupings in Lagos APC by the GAC after a meeting last week, described the ban as an admission of a long- standing error, which had indeed stalled developmen­t in Lagos State over the years.

The PDP added that the belated ban was not even in the considerat­ion of the state “but because of the political ambitions of the APC chieftains.”

It also accused the ruling party of running other groupings, which have also contribute­d to the grossly mal- administer­ed and unsafe Lagos State. According to the PDP, “Such groupings and others secretly operating have been longterm clogs in the wheels of developmen­t of the state.

“Those groups are in the forefront of collecting free Lagos funds, abandoning developmen­t projects, diverting palliative­s meant for the vulnerable, imposing very mediocre incompeten­t office holders, attacking and coercing opposition interests in all walks of life. Citizens of the state will always remember the APC allegation­s against the immediate past governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, that he stopped the funding of their chieftains and party. Hence, they went ahead to deny him ( Ambode) a second term.”

The PDP, however, boasted that it would defeat APC in the next governorsh­ip poll.

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