Governor Ifeany Okowa of Delta State and the vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections has received a large crowd of decampees from the Lagos State chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) into the PDP in Lagos State.

The decampees were received on Sunday in Ikeja by Okowa, who applauded them for taking that decision, stressing that their national office had done the same in Abuja and Yola a few days ago.

Adewole Ijaogbomo, ADC chairman of the chairmen of the local government in Lagos State who spoke on behalf of the decampees said that the ADC has collapsed its structure in the state to endorse the governorship candidate of the PDP, Dr. Olajide Adediran, the presidential candidate of the party, Atiku Abubakar and his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, ahead of the 2023 general elections.

“This act was consummated by concerned Lagosians who had congregated under the auspices of our great party, ADC for the purpose of rescuing Lagos State from the claws of a slave master who had held and still holding lagosians in the jugular for close to twenty four years.

“There is no doubt, Lagosians are in existential bondage, and no amount of armchair criticism can solve the problems other than for the like-minded individuals and groups who are desolate and depressed to come together and fight the battle – Hence ; the need for this gathering today.

He added, “Before today, we sat down as a group and profile every political parties in Lagos State and their candidates for gubernatorial election for the purpose of identifying the best of all who can match the ruling party in terms of structure, spread, tenacity and all other ancillary qualities required for winning election.

“Based on the aforementioned, we the LGA chairmen of ADC in Lagos State including the ward chapters hereby collapse our structures and through this medium directs our entire structures to mobilize, campaign and vote all PDP candidates from Atiku/Okowa ticket for the presidential election on the 25th February 2023 and Dr Abdul-azeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor) for governor of Lagos State on the 11th march 2023,” Ijaogbomo said.

Okowa who received them and handed over the PDP flays to them, was accompanied by Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, and urged them to use their youthful energy to campaign for the party’s successes in the forthcoming elections,

He said, “For those of us that are politicians when we see strength in politics we would recognise it. When we see positive movements that can change things we would recognize it. You have confirmed that you will work with us, Atiku/Okowa and Jandor, we thank all of you.

“25th of February is six days away and I know that you are very eager to take over Lagos State, and that Jandor will become Governor of Lagos State but the easiest pathway is to ensure that Atiku/Okowa wins the election on Saturday and once that happens by the special grace of God, the so called ownership in Lagos would have been done with, and you can walk very quickly and take over the government house.

“You have not done the wrong thing because your party at the national level has publicly declared for Atiku/Okowa ticket. The declaration was first made in Abuja and was also made in Yola on Saturday. Be courageous and fear not, you will take over Lagos State and Atiku/Okowa will take over Nigeria, and we shall work together to give the best to our people and to unify Nigeria and not be divided,” Okowa said.

He said that the PDP presidential candidate Atiku is a unifier and someone who understands the challenges of Nigeria and was prepared to find solutions to the problems.

Okowa said, “We understand the problems facing the country, problems of downturn in the economy, insecurity, wasting of the country’s resources on refineries that are not working. Why keep the refineries and we continue to waste our resources? We waste the assets of the country on importing petroleum products that make Nigerian poorer and poorer. This will not happen again. With the Atiku/Okowa ticket we can make our country work again and grow our economy to a higher level,” he said.

Jandor who made the movement possible said that the journey to get the ADC on board started over a year.

He said, “When they said that they were coming to work for me I told them that they were coming to work for the party from top to bottom.

“The journey started last year and they ran away at a point. Today they are here. Last week we had the entire structure of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) join us. We will conquer all of them, form a formidable team to win the All Progressives Congress (APC),” he said.

However, while reacting to the defection, the Lagos State chairman of ADC George Ashiru denies the decampees, he said they are not members of his party, and that the membership of the party and its structure remains intact.

Ashiru said, “It is all rumours about the actions of people purporting to be Lagos ADC collaborating or “collapsing” themselves into the PDP or any other party in Lagos State, they are the work of fictitious “members” of ADC.”