The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos state in a statement on Monday August 17, 2015, advised Tunji Shelle, the state Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chairman to honourably resign.
Joe Igbokwe
The statement by APC spokesman Joe Igbokwe urged Shelle who has been battling with members of the state PDP over his position to stop deceiving his party and Lagos residents. According to The Nation, he said Shelle should have resigned honourably, having lost the state governorship elections in 2011 and 2015.
In the statement, Igbokwe said “All over the world, when a chairman of party becomes a serial loser, he does not need anybody to counsel him to leave the stage for fresh hands, but not Shelle of Lagos PDP.
“If he is not blaming party leaders, he turns his searchlight to the opposition and now he is blaming the former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“The totally devastated Shelle, who has been suffering votes of no confidence since the last elections, told his party members in Amuwo Odofin in Lagos that the former president allowed APC to get away with a lot of illegalities during the last elections, which led to his own defeat.
“According to Shelle, if Jonathan had won the presidential elections, PDP would have used soldiers, police, Department of State Services (DSS), Civil Defence etc to steal Lagos.”
The party said the day Jonathan picked the PDP ticket for the presidential election was the day he lost.
It added that Jonathan should not have contested in 2011, given the political arrangement put in place after the June 12, 1993 election crisis to rotate power between the North and the South every eight years.
Igbokwe said that there was no way Jonathan would have won with 11 states in South-south and South-east against 25 states in the South-west, North-east, North-west and North-central. Two small zones in the Southeast and South-south would not have defeated the four big zones of Southwest, Northeast, Northwest and Northcentral.
He stated that even if South-east and South-south voted 150 per cent beyond Mathematics, Jonathan would not have won that election. The spokesman said that even the millions of votes Jonathan got were padded.
In the statement, the spokesman said, in Lagos, Shelle was a living witness to many illegalities PDP and the law enforcement agencies unleashed on Lagosians. He said PDP illegally set up SURE-P Recruitment Centre at old Toll Gate Lagos and used it to fleece unsuspecting Lagosians of their hard-earned money in the name of providing jobs for them.
Shelle was accused of waiting until the PDP lost Lagos “for him to tell the world that one man who had dubious courage defrauded Lagosians”.
Igbokwe queried: “Where was Shelle when PDP unleashed OPC illegally on Lagosians one Monday morning from the old Toll Gate to the National Stadium, grounding Lagos, bearing guns, machetes, destroying all APC campaign materials with the help of the police along that corridor, shouting that Jega must go and that the Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) and Card Readers should not be used?
“Where was Shelle when Jonathan brought million of dollars and pounds to throw around in Lagos and consequently divided Lagos along ethnic lines, which nearly caused xenophobic attacks in the metropolis?”
The party also asked where Shelle was when PDP candidates were brandishing guns and shooting people in Alimosho, Lagos while APC was busy campaigning.
“Where was Shelle when PDP imposed Jimi Agbaje on the party at Oregun, Ikeja Lagos, which led to massive shootings and stampede?
“Where was Shelle when his PDP left the campaigns to win elections and resorted to shooting APC members in the Island?” the statement asked.
The statement asked if Shelle saw all the hate campaigns PDP and its agents ditched out in a bid to tear President Muhammadu Buhari down and yet the man ran away with victory. He stressed that Shelle may not know this, most of the campaigns advertorials PDP pushed out to sell Jonathan ended up being used to sell Buhari. The campaign worked heavily for PMB instead of Jonathan.
“Lagos APC insists that Shelle should stop crying over spilled milk and face realities. Old ways will never open new doors. PDP has played their last card in Nigeria and Lagos and it will take years for this party to rise again in this country.
“Excuses and excuses can never help Shelle and PDP. Ambode defeated Agbaje with more than 150,000 votes, even with their illegalities, money politics and ethnic politics.
“This is a lesson. Let Shelle resign and give way for a fresh hand to help the party. This is the path of honour,” he said.
Meanwhile, the APC has accused Jonathan’s administration of looting about $56bn (N11.02tn).
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