The Nigerian music star cum politician, Bankole Wellington popularly known as Banky W, has said that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is responsible for some of the challenges Nigerians are battling.

Banky W who is a House of Representatives candidate for Eti-Osa Federal Constituency in Lagos, stated this on Wednesday during an interview on Arise TV.

He said that he joined politics to contribute in proffering solutions to the problems of the country.

He said, “In 2018, I started feeling like the problems in Nigeria is from top to bottom, while the solution is from the bottom up. So we have to start from the National Assembly, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the state houses of assembly. So when I talked to young people then, they didn’t even know who were contesting for the seats.

“And then I started thinking, I felt this burden that said, ‘If you, with with your education and your success and your background and your following and your audience and your voice, and you can’t stick your neck out and say I can be a part of this system and I can bring a solution to the table, then who am I waiting for?’ Politics will always be dirty and dangerous until good people start to be part of the system.”

Wellington also said that he chose PDP because he considered it as the party that aligned with his principles, after a failed experiment with an unpopular party that was subsequently de-registered by INEC.

“And concerning the choice of PDP: politics is local, and you need structure to win elections. We ran in 2019 on a party called MDP. But MDP was literally myself and my friend (called) BK. He was running in Ondo State and I was running in Lagos. We were just a bunch of young people.

“After that election, INEC de-registered most of the political parties which I was fully in support of because they were 96. It didn’t make sense. And if you look at any functioning democracy in the world, like if you want to get into any office in America, you have to be a Democrat or a Republican. So also in the UK, it’s between Labour and Conservative.

“So, looking at both parties, I said where do I think that I can go into without losing my soul, where I will be able to stand on what I stand for, fight for what I want to fight for. And the PDP ticked those boxes for me. It’s truly a democratic party,” he said.

Banky W further stated that he is aware of the fact that the PDP had caused Nigerians some pains in the past and he could not defend it, adding that he is willing to be one of those who can reform the party.

“But the truth of the matter is, we have to acknowledge the pains that a lot of young people feel, we have to acknowledge the frustration Nigerians feel, some of which were caused by people in the PDP, absolutely.

“But the way I look at it is that a system is only as good as the people that are involved in it. A system is just a collection of people that are fighting for it, pushing for any kind of result. So, the longer we shun the process, the longer that the system will be bad.

“The truth of the matter is that I’m not here to defend anything everybody in the PDP has ever done. That’s not my job. I’m here to reform it,” he said.

An Ikeja High Court on Tuesday sentenced a former ‘Baale’ (Chief) in Shangisha in the Magodo area of Lagos State, Mutiu Ogundare, and his brother, Opeyemi Mohammed, to 15 years imprisonment each for faking his own kidnap.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the court had on 15 June discharged and acquitted the third defendant, Mr Ogundare’s wife, Abolanle.

The judge, Hakeem Oshodi, had on 15 June convicted Messrs Ogundare and Mohammed on three counts of conspiracy and fake abduction.

“I have considered the allocutus of the defence counsel. However, it is in the view of this court that the defendants showed no remorse during the trial.

“In fact, the first defendant tried to buy his way out of the court. A lesson has to be thought to serve as a deterrent to others.

“The defendants are hereby sentenced to 10 years for count one without an option of fine, one year to count two with an option of N200,000 and 15 years to count three without an option of fine.

“The sentencing shall run concurrently from the day they were arrested,” Mr Oshodi said.

NAN reports that Olarewaju Ajanaku, who represented the first defendant, in his allocutus on 15 June, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy.

Mr Ajanaku had prayed to the court that the convict had turned a new leaf and he did not think through his action when he committed the offences.

The second defendant’s counsel, Olayinka Owoeye, also in his allocutus, had prayed the court to temper justice with mercy, adding that the convict had learnt his lessons.

The state prosecutor, Jubril Kareem, however, urged the court to apply the provisions of law to sentence the convict.

According to the prosecution, the defendants committed the offence on 5th July 2017.

The prosecution said that Mr Ogundare put himself forward to be kidnapped for the purpose of causing a breach of the public peace, adding that his brother and wife aided in the crime.

NAN reports that former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos, in July 2017, ordered the removal of Mr Ogundare as the Baale of Shangisha, for staging his own abduction.