Interview
To win Lagos, I will retire Bode George, sack moles – Segun Adewale
Lagos PDP Chieftain, Otunba Segun Adewale in a recent chat with our correspondent explained why PDP became a serial looser at the state’s gubernatorial jostles since 1999,he spoke to why he had to take over Lagos PDP Secretariat,indicts Chief Bode George on anti party activities,he also shed light on his widely reported assault of a reporter of BBC pidginduring the last election. Excerpt:
Much has not been heard about the name Segun Adewale in recent times, what have you been up to since your Guber jostle in Ekiti?
I didn’t go to ADP day one simply to contest, I went to Ekiti State to contest under PDP, I paid for the gubernatorial form to contest,but Fayose insisted that I can’t contest because I am not a PDP member in Ekiti state and I am going to relocate to Ekiti in future,I just want to come out and be known,I know it is impossible for me to win the primaries it is see and buy,as they say delegates are delicate because you have to buy and pay delegates so in Ekiti they didn’t allow me they insisted I am PDP member in Lagos. I know I can’t defeat Eleka because Governor is the one sponsoring Eleka, even Adeyeye that has structures too cannot do that but just let me contest, so it would be on record that I contested for this position and lost in Primaries. So in four or eight years time and then you can build on that but they refused.That is why I say okay let me use another platform,some parties now adopted me and I then chose ADP because it is new, I did not decamp, if I did you would have seen pictures of me and my people moving to ADP, I did not so immediately after primaries I went back to my town get people together give them money, I gave them 1million naira for them to go and prepare for the presidential election,I have the pictures too where the leaders were present, then those people that follow me to ADP for the election I have to bring them back again to PDP.
We have not seen much of you in Lagos PDP?
Yes that is one of the reason why I am trying to let the world know that there is no need for anybody to be in PDP in Lagos,until Chief Bode George is pushed aside or retired forcefully,if that is not done we are just wasting our time,that is why if I had gotten involved in the last election because I knew PDP cannot win the last election,I knew that Chief Bode George is working for the APC directly,I knew even Agbaje himself is not even ready for the fact that Chief Bode George is not ready to support Agbaje,he can use that as an excuse to fail. That is what I saw in advance and I didn’t get involved,if I had got myself involved and there is fracas in Lagos state,people would be saying that it is Segun Adewale that caused the defeat of 2019.
That is why I decided not to do anything at all. I saw the defeat coming that this election is going to worse than what we have been having before and that was what happened,the scenario where when we are trying to reconcile last two weeks Dominic himself confirm,assert, it is live I have it on record and would make it available to you,that they didn’t work for Agbaje because he did not give them money,that they worked for BOG, he said that so how can I be part of that PDP? It is anti party and Chief Bode George keep on doing it, you can recall that when I was the chairman of the party and we were about getting ready for the local government election, Chief Bode George went on channels and announced that PDP in Lagos would be using Labour platform, he wrote a letter through Salvador to the LASIEC that PDP is not contesting, we have to go and demonstrate at LASIEC before our name was taken and we have about six or seven councillors and they with all the monies given to them from Abuja they could not deliver one councillor,nobody give me money but I use my little resources organized the election and we had seven councillors that was declared. So in Lagos PDP are the one winning elections for APC,APC is not winning any election PDP themselves will help APC to rig elections on their behalf,quote me anywhere, I will mention names and give you evidences simple.
But do you blame this scenario only on Bode George let us consider the previous election and the intrigues?
I blame it all on Bode George because the head is rotten all other part goes bad.
What are the negative contributions coming from Agbaje himself that he did not collaborate with the party leadership to get result for the last election?
When I had the senatorial ticket here I defeated Chief Bode George’s son Salvador they had the structures and everything but that didn’t affect my performance. I scored 485,000 votes the person that won the election at the end of the day through their hankipanky defeated me by less than 4000 votes. Seven local governments were declared and I won, the other three local governments was not declared until Monday night, but this one that is happening,I don’t want to go too much into Agbaje’s issues because I can’t be fighting too many enemies. So let me finish the one on ground,which is Chief Bode George he is the one giving birth to other failures that is the point. So when we finish that then I can move to the second one,I can’t be fighting too many enemies at the same time and won’t have a problem. Chief Bode George controls PDP because he had been in the party since inception he is the vice national chairman for eight years, deputy national chairman for two years he has been in the corridor of powers for eleven years,he has been able made some people,ministers,chairman of boards,board members and more so a lot of people believed in him. Not for them to win elections they are not ready to win Lagos,so that is why sometimes I just laugh when Tinubu spend billions of naira to bribe INEC and all those people they are bribing the last time there was bullion van in his house on the eve of election,but if the PDP are not the one supporting, abetting or joining them to rigging in favour for APC,then nobody can win us, PDP does not really need to campaign,Assembly,House of Rep, senate and Governor, because people are tired of APC,even in Lagos there is double taxation from the local government,to state but still you can’t even see the money,there is traffic everywhere is smelling, people’s tenement rate is going up higher everyday,toll gate is there who is taking the money,that is the issue but the people are tired and the only option that can defeat APC is PDP, so the leader of APC planted some other leaders in PDP to make sure they have to keep on producing a candidate that does not want to win election.
How best can this issue be addressed?
The issue can be addressed if we have a proper Congress, since inception PDP has never had a proper congress here,that is why Lagos is the only state where PDP has never won a Governorship election before,because there has never been any Congress, the congress churns out the right candidate,the right personnel,the right functionaries to run the party
but names are written in Chief Bode George’s house and he would always reward loyalty,he would never reward your efforts,because your effort means you want to win. I was there at the collation centre representing Hon. Oghene when Chief Bode George was calling the E.O ordering him not to declare Oghene as the winner of the election, let him take me to court. He worked against all the Rep members, they all won but Chief Bode George said no,so they had to have a rerun,that is the point,that is our leader but people do not know,the Igbo’s do not know,they would risk their lives,their finances,their businesses to support PDP that is not ready to win, that is why I had to go out through the media and tell them that until there is a change of leadership, otherwise nobody should even bother,it is a waste of time.
This leadership you are talking about, we learnt through an online report that you have taking over the Lagos PDP secretariat?
Yes, I have taken over the secretariat and let me
take necessary steps, because I don’t want people to say Aeroland attacked them and I would be given a bad name,but I would not allow them do anything in that secretariat because I am the chairman and I would make sure I give you the copies of my letter from Sheriff, Sheriff was removed by the court agreed but I was not removed by any court that I should vacate the office. The same paper that is binding in Ogun state and the rest of southwest same applies to Lagos but I just allowed peace to reign in Lagos after almost two years of fighting,so that is what I did,they asked me to step aside for Salvador, my chairmanship would expire next year until the court of law tells me to leave, I obey the leadership because I want peace in Lagos,if I didn’t allow peace to reign they would blame it on me that I did not allow peace that is why Agbaje lost.
Immediately I left what happened? Chief Bode George took over the chairman, secretary and the woman leader positions and even the people who came from Abuja to settle the matter they gave us Secretary and gave Chief Bode George chairman but Mrs Maina another woman that does not want PDP to win connived with Bode George and relinquished the secretary given to us,so based on that Bode George now has the chairman and Secretary, Mrs Maina now went for the Treasurer and Financial secretary where there is money and left the key area which is secretary,so all these people they have tried they’ve been there since 1999 failing,if they show me today that they have won their polling unit,I am not talking about their wards,or my local governments that I won that was not given to me,but I have the results of my ward which I won,they should go and bring their result,his polling unit in Lagos Island Sego and area boy defeat him every four,four years in that polling unit, an illiterate area boy defeat Chief Bode George so how can somebody that has never won his polling unit, his ward or local government and has not produced a councillor now merit to be your leader and the one controlling it would be failure. Before you can be leader leading a team there must be some degree of success. He would be laying claim to southwest, let’s start from your poliing unit,so I am pushing that one to a logical conclusion this time around that I am the authentic chairman,until the court says otherwise but PDP is saying that people should not go to court that is why I have been taking my time,what can I do and how do I do it because, Chief Bode George brought Salvador he left for APC, I came back again people started begging me election is two months so we should allow peace to reign, Salvador gave it to another elderly person,Dominic Aderoju one of his stooge that join the party less than two years to be chairman, that one came and factionalized the party by creating additional chairmen in each local government and wards in addition to the one that Abuja created, so we now had two or three chairman in each local government, what can they do? In my local government we had two chairmen, the chairman recognized by Abuja has his name there,Dominic now elect another on his own by the approval of the useless Chief Bode George, one,one in each local government again,in fact in that process, we now have two, the authentic and his own,and because Dominic is the chairman, he would always call a meeting for his own chairman at the detriment of the party, that is what finished the party,so now luckily for us Dominic’s tenure is 90 days which expired on 21st of December. So I am the chairman now until the national tells me otherwise or a court of law.
Given your claim that PDP is a factionalized party,why do you still show so much interest?
I have much interest in the party because it remains the only party that people can use to challenge the political hegemony of Bola Ahmed Tinubu,there is no other, none,people are used to PDP, the illiterate is PDP, the two political party in Lagos that is viable is APC and PDP,that is it,I have tried it using another party,which is ADP,people did not understand. So I am going back to ensure that for the first time PDP can be able to count themselves ,it is a shame that we can’t even count ourselves,we can’t count our monies,we can’t count our votes. Those are the three things, you know why,because we have about 20,000 polling units PDP doesn’t have enough members to put there and there are so many people willing to do that but we can’t feel up the 20,000 polling units, I was with Agbaje through out and was telling him that you want to contest election and you don’t even have polling unit agents that would help you count your votes close to your election. I organized in my local government in Alimosho about 1000 polling agents on my own,with my own money,so that I will know you are the collation officer,you are the polling agent,they did not do that elsewhere in Lagos. I said okay give me money let me do it in five local governments, he said he has no money. Ehn! Why are you contesting? When they give us billions and we can’t even count it,may be they give 10bn, 1or 2bn will be available and the 2bn naira if shared across the local governments how much gets to them? Maybe by the time it gets there it is almost half,that is how we keep on losing,so those are the three things I want to tidy up. I want to also try and get people that have left the party like BOG and Salis to come back,all these people should come back and build the party if you can’t get the governorship, go and do senate, Banky W in Lagos Island even tried more than our candidate,go and look for them,we need them because time is going and the ruling party is busy fleecing our Commonwealth and some people should be able to rise up and challenge them,you need to have a platform that is solid and they know I can do it,so that is the reason why I am fighting more enemies in the PDP than in the APC.
With all these Identified and enumerated what is the way forward?
The way forward is to project myself as the bonafide chairman of PDP which I have done,the second thing is to hold a proper congress,we have never had a congress in Lagos all we had are kangaroo congress wherein names are written by fiat,no election that people should queue and be counted a direct delegate election, from where people emerge from ward,to local government, to state, no Bode George chose the chairman in advance and that is all, the moment you bring the chairman,you know you have failed in advance for another four years, so when they brought Salvador and Dominic I just left for Ekiti that what am I waiting for ? When I got to Ekiti I met another junior Bode George in form of Fayose it is the truth,how can you be a governor after four years you are leaving you cannot produce an House of Assembly member,no assembly member,no reps,no senate for PDP in Ekiti state, he even lost in his own polling unit,that is conspiracy and that is why many of us have problems with the party, because we are trying to do the right things the people that are doing the wrong things are the ones progressing, if you are doing the right thing people just hate you with passion,because Tinubu the leader of APC has planted people in PDP not to ever produce the right candidates that can win governorship, so that is what we are trying to do,let us tidy up ourselves. Get assembly members,enough reps and senates,even if we cannot get senate let them give us enough assembly members. How can it be getting worse,now we had none in the assembly, whereas when I contested we had eight in the assembly and six in the reps when I didn’t contest we manage to have two reps, assembly none,it is deliberate. They are all intertwined.
What would be your counsel to a loyal PDP member now?
A loyal PDP membership should not do anything until we get it right. It is a waste of time,people are crying,some are sent out of the house for supporting PDP and at the end of the day they gonna lose. There should be mass protest because the moment there is no congress, it would be the same. Gani who you all know is the publicity secretary of PDP in Lagos now that our people are being cheated have you heard any write up from him on that? When somebody won the election like Okunola our candidate for reps in Ikeja won and he was not declared? I was the one who informed him that he won owing the ongoing announcement and I called Okunola to inform him to look for his collation officers as they have been announcing results, he was beaten to coma and locked up,no write up or reaction from our publicity secretary, none.
Agbaje matter still hanging in the balance sir?
I was with him all through and he said he has no money and I said okay give us 10,000 naira for each polling units for refreshment for the polling agents and to avoid police harassment, not 1m,just 10,000, he did not give anybody one naira eve of the election, no leader went back to the local government with a dime, maybe five of us collected a hundred thousand naira each,which the area boys before I stepped out of the place protein,I gave them 200,000 naira. I was the one who insisted they give candidates 1m each, what would they do with that when the other party gave their counterparts close to 200m per local government. So they had to just keep it as part of the bad debts they were owing. It is deliberate ones you give money people would come out, I even ask Agbaje about security and he said he is doing something about it.
I was the one giving three thousand to polling agents and twenty thousand,ten thousand to some collation agents though I am not contesting.
This is the first time governorship candidate would score less than a senatorial candidate, Rhodes Vivour Gbadebo of Lagos west. I will fight them one after the other for the next four years.
The last battle I won if not for Mrs Maina who betrayed us to grab the Financial Secretary and Treasurer slot, so I am confident, I would still win.
We are the one in charge of this place now,police came the Area Commander,DPO I got an injunction against the police we fought here and they need not interfere since it is PDP not with APC,it is not their business so a petition and copy the IG,so that is what I use the last time and I was there for two years at the end of the day we were supposed to have a congress but the same leadership connived with Chief Bode George and said let us share the portfolio’s Chief Bode George had 55,they gave me 10,Maina 20 and Agbaje 15, so I gave my 10 to Chief Bode George to make 65,though I should have given my own to Maina but she betrayed us and working with Agbaje who does not want to win. I then decided to yield to him my portion with the believe that it will amount to nothing, so his can have 65 percent and he would be able to deal with our betrayer and all again,since his is higher than their 35. I also had to support his PDP chairmanship race at the national with the believe that he would leave Lagos alone for good, even gave millions to enhance his moves.
Atiku tried because despite all the opposition within the PDP even at the national, he won the election and INEC had not controvert his claim on what they had on their server till now. They are yet to come out officially to denounce it,so he won. APC is not PDP, PDP is the party of gentlemen, people that have decorum, but APC is not like that see Oshodi,they just went there in broad daylight and chase people with guns saying,there is no elections here and wrote results, BBC Pidgin won’t write that, so the issue now is that PDP won landslide but it was outright rigging,the rigging was not even done well PDP do sometimes but it was done moderately and the figures tally but this one was not,though I don’t support rigging ,okay you have a unit with 300 registered voters,then 300 voted APC no voided votes,meanwhile 210 did accreditation through card reader but 300 people voted. It is just like that everywhere but it is going to be difficult for Atiku to get his mandate back,it is only God because this people can do anything and even go to any length to use crooked means to make sure the tribunal will upturn the decision,they can do anything the tribunal can even be dissolved by fiat, see what they did to Onnoghen a man of integrity,they rubbished him all because of this election, they did that in advance and gullible Nigerians started calling him names,he is a thief,he is this and that even my friends, I have lost so many of them because I can’t even stick them anymore how do we think like that, you are suffering, a lot of people are suffering and they would be talking about integrity, I don’t mind if the man has integrity,he doesn’t have, he’s got Babachir,Ganddollar everybody is there stealing money,I do tell people that there is no difference between PDP and APC they are two different sides of a coin. I even prefer PDP because back then a lot of people were relieved of their position none instead they kept promoting them so that is the reason why let’s start from Lagos state and Nigeria at large.
I have passion to liberate PDP in Lagos and Nigeria,so the election was won by Atiku clean clear and everybody knew and that is why we keep on seeing the result,how can you say you want to go to River state and take over and win the election there? It is impossible even the guy leading the battle for AAC can not even pronounce the name of the party is AAC he said ANC.
We are going to sack all the leaders that work deliberately against Atiku and Agbaje,we will also retire Bode George. He cannot be sacked because he is our leader,but we will retire him. We don’t want to see him talking about Lagos PDP anymore after all he is done enough,we have seen his wife recently promoted in the NDLEA for a job well done by his husband in APC government. You know Buhari is so vindictive, he would never allow anybody not doing his bid to be working for him,it is impossible. He has said before that 5 percent versus 97 percent which is even a wrong calculation though.
What actually transpired between you and the BBC reporter who you were reported to have slapped?
I did not slap the lady as claimed,even the one they are claiming was not the real lady with whom I had issue,she was just brought up to impersonate the real person who was my former staff. She was with me in Ekiti throughout and this one I don’t even know this one, the real lady was there that day working for APC,I was inside because I cannot be wasting my time for Agbaje who I know was not ready to win, what happened that day was that I was in my father’s house while election was ongoing and somebody informed me that APC was sharing one thousand naira and gala, I became furious that you have beaten us already now,you want to beat us mercilessly again by rigging election? Our people are not coming out to vote and you are now inducing them,if you see the picture at first I had no altercation with the lady,I was all out against the act of inducement, I later got to know the lady instead of videoing those sharing gala, she beamed her camera on me and I said stop if you continue videoing me I would slap you, I did said that but I didn’t a boy just collected her phone saying who are you calling? Then she responded are you kidding me? That was what transpired and BBC called Lanre the Accord party secretary that they had that there was a fracas in my polling unit 091, that they had that Segun Adewale was fighting a lady. Lanre called and I refuted the claim and narrated what really transpired and I returned the phone back,because if I seized the phone how would they get the evidence, they won’t have any evidence, so it was because I cautioned the guy that she was my former staff. Imagine she was truly slapped how can she use the ear to receive the call at that same time? I don’t blame them the person who took the BBC franchise in Lagos works directly for Tinubu,that informs my stance. I tell you today though I don’t have money, I want anybody that can bring a damaging report on the atrocities of APC that BBC have done, that of the militarization of Rivers or any bad news concerning APC or even their rally in Ikeja where they started shooting at close range, which one have they reported? Today on Facebook BBC is praising Tinubu beyond the ordinary, so the same people who got the franchise are the ones destroying me, that is why they are housed in properties an unbiased news medium can’t occupy per annum it is about 30 or 40 million,because I have Pfizer in one of them,even Punch and Thisday as thriving as they are cannot afford the rent let alone buy property in that location. They work for Tinubu.
Elections concluded now after repositioning PDP, come 2023 what political ambition have you in view?One, I have none for 2023, but I will contest governorship position in 2027, anywhere either in Lagos or Ekiti.
Why 2027?
Because we have to reposition the party and get the right people there then use that as a springboard come 2027 because Chief Bode George will not go down easily for me that we gonna fight for four years,because this people made lots of money, Chief Bode George makes billions every four,four years he doesn’t need to work or have a limited liability company,because election money would come. Let me tell you how they make their billions;number one when you have the control of the party you can negotiate with another on the political fortune of your party,two you will conduct a local government election in between, before the general election and we have 20 local governments minimum of those that will come out to contest in any local government is 20 or 30 sometimes there would council members and local government chairmen so making 30, let’s put the forms to be sold at minimum 100,000 naira then you calculate 30 in each local government times 20 times 100,000,that money is not going to Abuja it enters Chief Bode George’s pocket, that is about 1billion on the sale of forms alone,because not all those contesting will be selected, just one person becomes the chairman of the local government and it is not refundable. When they bring the money he and his cronies stash it,then the congress to elect new chairman, treasurer, secretary and more at the national, the person who want to be chairman would bring millions of naira and some dollars to him to help distribute to delegates to secure the votes at primaries and then comes general elections because you have about six or seven million voters in Lagos,which is about what they have in six or eight states put together elsewhere. In other to win the candidate gives one million dollars per local government to Bode George as a leader,in fact why he is having a brawl with Agbaje is because this money was not given to him but Agbaje,that is why they are fighting not for the good of the common people. That is why he won’t die early because when you get 1billion every four years the motivation is there that I must not die oo,another four years is coming I have instances of a man around me here who with 5000 naira I made available to him as monthly stipend had his life turned around from a formerly unkempt individual now full of life same goes for a pap seller whose story changed by mere distribution empowerment afforded to sustain her business with less stress and she get paid for the supply by my office weekly,while the pap goes for free to those who come around for it. Imagine Bode George can live for 100years with the monies coming in torrent periodically, even cancer can’t thrive in such a man with stupendous riches gotten without much stress. He would not like to die again his children can die. We are in a dilemma here, so I decided to sacrifice my ambition for us to have a lot of assembly members,house of reps members and more, let’s tidy up and decide we have 20,000 polling booths,with three canvassers,one polling booths agent there,amidst whom I would have a chairman,woman leader,youth leader and secretary of that polling booth 001 so when I have money for election it would be distributed to the polling booths direct. They are the ones that would now share it not to give to one leader.