The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos state, Jimi Agbaje, has persistently promised that he will free Lagos State from the Alphabeta Consulting and restore liberty to the people and the government.
Agbaje had at different for a declared: “I could be here all day talking about Free Lagos. Let me start from the basic freedom of information Act, Lagos is still run like a closed shop, like a private company.
“Lagos has refused to domesticate the freedom of information bill, so we don’t know what plays out in Lagos. So we are talking of freedom to have access to exactly how they are running our government.
“In the last 20 years, Lagos has spent some N7 trillion, and we are asking what have we got for N7 trillion? Are we getting value for money?
“Out of that N7 trillion, there is a private company that takes a percentage of that N7 trillion, and we are asking, for what purpose? There is private company fund collector, Alphabeta or whatever, collects that much.
“We don’t even know what the percentage is; it could be 12 percent, 10 percent, it could be 8 percent.”
When asked if the company was legal or not, he said “it is not about being legal, it is about being moral, because if you tell me that of every amount of money that Lagos spends, there is a private company that is collecting, and I am asking, that is taxpayers money, why should it be, to what purpose?”
“It is against standard practice because we don’t see what they are doing and we don’t even know what the percentage is, and I don’t see value for money, so its freedom from that.”
The slogan has persisted all through the campaign for the March 2 governorship election in Lagos State, and has continued to penetrate the grassroots population in the state.
More so, PDP Vice Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has continued to reinforce the campaign and mobilization of the Igbo community in Lagos from the Computer Village, Ikeja, to the Ladipo Market, Oshodi, the Alaba International Market, Okokomaiko, Suru-Alaba Market near Mile 2, among others.
Hundreds of thousands of Igbo traders troop out to listen to them and assure them of support at whatever location Obi and Agbaje register their presence in the state.