Otunba Segun Adewale (popularly known as Aeroland) is a former Lagos state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He speaks in this interview with TEMIDAYO AKINSUYI on why the party is always enmeshed in crisis during election period, his suspension from the party and other matters of interests. Excerpts:

The PDP in Alimosho LGA said they have suspended you for a period of 30 days. How will you react to that?

Just ignore those people. I am a South-West leader of the party so how can they suspend me? These people are APC moles who are making money from both PDP and APC. I was the one that fought for them to occupy their present position. Their tenure will expire in two month’s time and they know I will ensure they are not returned back to office. So, the only option available to them is to claim that they have suspended me but they are making a big mistake. I am a South West leader. If you want to suspend me, the paper will go to the South-West chapter. But the South-West chairman, Taofeek Arapaja knows what is going on in Lagos. So, the suspension cannot work.

In Lagos PDP, ninety-nine percent of our leaders are moles who are working for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Only one percent of us have remained steadfast and committed to the cause of PDP and they hated us for that. They want us out of the party at all cost so they can have a free hand to carry out their sinister agenda. Let me also add that our number one leader in Lagos whose name I won’t mention is the chief mole. Inside this mole, there also caucuses of moles. They have been fighting each other that they will take the government. Their plan is that when they get the government in the state, they can use it to negotiate and get lots of money from Tinubu. How can we have a leader that cannot deliver his polling unit? Chief Bode George is my leader but go and check with LASIEC if he has ever won his polling unit.

Tinubu is a master tactician who knows that the moment PDP is free from any crisis, they will win Lagos because the people are fed up with APC. Lagosians are suffering and majority of the people that Tinubu is fixing in government are not Lagosians. Most of the laws they are making in Lagos are draconian laws and they don’t care because they know there is no strong opposition to challenge them. They know the opposition in Lagos, which is PDP is in Tinubu’s pocket. These so-called PDP leaders in Lagos are on their payroll, including our number one leader.

Why has it been difficult for PDP win in Lagos state since 1999?

It is because majority of the leaders in PDP are APC at heart, so there is no way we can defeat APC till Jesus come. We are just wasting our time. In 2015, we had a golden opportunity when I contested election as senatorial candidate for Lagos West. For the first time, PDP produced eight members of the House of Assembly and six House of Reps seats. It is not a coincidence that the seats that we won,, majority are from Lagos West because we campaigned very well.

I believe that we can win Lagos if we have genuine people at the top, but unfortunately we don’t have. That is why you see us fighting every four years during elections. We have another election in a month’s time, which is the local government elections and these people claimed they have suspended me for 30 days so that I won’t be able to participate and campaign for PDP candidates so that we can win. I am sure that all these things the boys from my ward in Alimosho are doing is coming from our leader. If you recall, the last time we contested in 2017, Chief Bode George asked PDP members to go to Labour Party. He went on national television and said that PDP is not contesting and everybody should go to Labour Party. That was how we lost out but we still managed to produce eight councilors. Now we have another election coming up in 30 days’ time and I was suspended in my own ward by the people I fought for and raised politically. These are people that I bought nomination forms for because they couldn’t afford it; they are the same people that are now suspending me. To me, it is clear that they are not the ones doing it, it is being orchestrated from the top. Their aim is to suspend me so that Alimosho cannot be delivered to PDP.

There is no excuse for us not to win elections in Lagos. Look at the judgment of yesterday (Tuesday) now, Deji Doherty was sacked as Lagos PDP Chairman and Dr. Adegbola Dominic reinstated. How can that judgment work? Dominic was asked by the national leadership of the party to lead us for three months. He was selected as the acting state chairman, nobody voted for him. Chief Bode George put him there and the national body ratified it that he should work for three months. After three months, he refused to leave. So, I went to the state secretariat of the party and removed him. It was after I removed him that the national body now conducted an election and Doherty became the state chairman. So, why will a judge now sack Doherty and ordered that Dominic be reinstated when election is in 30 days time? It is to create chaos as usual and put the PDP in disarray. The ultimate aim is for us to start fighting again and lose the local government election.

You’ve talked about the court judgment sacking Deji Doherty as Lagos PDP chairman. What advice can you give to him?

If I am Doherty and he himself is also sure that he is not working for APC, he should appeal the decision but he should only do that after the election . He should call Dominic and ask that they work together so that they can deliver our candidates. The same scenario happened in 2017 when I was the state chairman of the party and I was fighting Moshood Salvador. We had election and they keep on fighting me. I don’t understand politics well then so, I was wondering, why are these people fighting me when we have an election in three months’ time? It was so fierce then and I remembered that Chief Bode George went on national television and said that we are not contesting election and they are going to Labour Party. He instructed PDP members to go to Labour Party. I had to go to Chief Bode George’s house and said ‘please take the chairmanship from me but let all our members stay in PDP and let us deliver the council elections for our people. I said we stand nothing to gain in PDP if our members voted for Labour Party. I said I will relinquish the chairmanship position for the sake of the election and I will continue the battle after the election. I told him all these but they refused. After that, the party became polarised. Some went to Labour Party, some went to APGA, others went to ADC and as such, our votes were divided. We only managed to produce eight councilors. Few months after, Salvador himself decamped to APC. These people are the ones that made me go to Ekiti state to go and contest governorship election in 2018. Unfortunately, when I went to Ekiti, I met another younger version of Chief Bode George in the person of Ayo Fayose.

I think the fault belongs to the national leadership too. Why will you continue to give power to people who are making us lose elections? Now, Chief Bode George created another apex leader in all the local governments. I am a South-West leader but I couldn’t fit into Chief Bode George’s apex leadership in my own local government. That means I am not qualified to be a local government leader in Lagos despite my position as a leader in the South-West. All these people they appointed are stooges they have created for the election of Asiwaju Tinubu indirectly. The story of Alimosho local government today is that, INEC will announce that I won election, but PDP will counter it and said I lost. It is very unfortunate.
https://independent.ng/why-lagos-pdp-is-always-plagued-with-crisis-at-every-electoral-period-adewale/

If you live in Lagos Bola and Remi Tibunu are your parents.






Pls nobody should quote me. I am not feeling the left side of my brain this morning.

With me,But not with me...wicked politicians.

If the APC can plant Ali Modu Sheriff as the National Leader of the PDP, what is the state chapter that they can't buy

This guy can't talk about PDP without mentioning Tinubu's name to blackmail Lagos PDP stalwarts he doesn't like. He's even once accused Bode George of being on Tinubu's payroll. His problem is that he's too thuggish and talks too much, and for that reason most important Lagos PDP members avoid him.

Aeroland ... He once bestrode Alimosho LG like a colossus before he left Labour Party where he started from for the PDP

If that is the case, there is no PDP in Lagos state.