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Adeniyi Jafojo, the Labour Party candidate for Agege 1 State Constituency, has Mudashiru Obasa, the incumbent representative of the constituency at the Lagos State House of Assembly for abysmal performance.
Mr Obasa, a fifth-term Lagos Assemblyman, serving as the Speaker in the last two terms, is gunning for a sixth term in the governorship and state assembly elections billed for Saturday.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday, Mr Jafojo, son of former Lagos deputy governor, Rafiu Jafojo, said Age Constituency 01 has benefited nothing from Mr Obasa’s long run at the state assembly.
The Labour Party candidate described Mr Obasa as a selfish politician who does not care about his constituents.
“What has the speakership position he holds brought to Agege? What have we enjoyed in Agege? What new things. Is it the building of recreational centres? Is it creating a lot of jobs for our women and men? What is it that we have really enjoyed? Is it a perfect express road? What is it that his being a Speaker has attracted to us? Mr Jafojo queried when asked why he was trying to dislodge the Lagos speaker.
He continued, “If you go to some other constituencies where they don’t have a speaker, they are better looking than us. In Agege, it is every day you fix the shock absorber of your car because the roads are bad, so what advantage have we as people of Agege really enjoyed having Speaker for two terms?
“Personally speaking, I haven’t seen the advantage, that is why a lot of people like us are saying we must challenge that status quo, we must come against and talk about all these things, for so long, we have been covering it. We have covered it for almost two terms which is eight years, for me that is just too long,” Mr Jafojo lamented.
Mr Jafojo decamped from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to clinch Labour’s ticket ahead of the 2023 election. He condemned the deceit and political subterfuge of his former party leaders to perpetually retain Mr Obasa on the seat, while there are more ‘capable hands’ in the constituency.
“Agege has never been short of capable hands who can bring adequate representation to our people but the problem has been imposition by the party leaders.
“I remember when I was in APC as a member, every time there was an election, Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa will always plead with the leaders who will prevail on us to be patient. They would say we shouldn’t worry, this would be his last term and he wouldn’t want to go again.
“The last time that such a plea came was prior to the 2019 election, when they pleaded with all of us again that since he was going for Senate thereafter, he was not going to contest for House of Assembly anymore. But before we know it, he just did a 360 degrees turn around and said no, he was not going for the Senate anymore, and wanted to remain in the Assembly. It was at this point some of us concluded the party leaders were not being sincere, so we decided to leave the party,” he said.
Mr Jafojo decried the rate at which his supporters were being attacked by alleged APC thugs in Agege, which he sees as an act of desperation by the non-performing speaker.
“Three or four days ago, I got a call that some APC members in APC shirts were attacking my people, they brought down and burnt my banner telling them that they know they want to work for the Labour Party and not for APC.
“Why this level of desperation? If you have done a good job, people will support you. Why are people still talking about the Jakande and Jafojo era till date? It is because they did good things, people still talk about the work they did.
“Those days they referred to UPN as the party of ‘Mekunnu’. It is like the Labour Party today where you don’t need to have money to get the party’s ticket. If you have done so well and it is visible to the people in the community they are going to come out and support you,” Mr Jafojo asserted.
The LP candidate also said his aspiration is much of a need to fulfil the age long desires of his late father whose initial ambition was to clinch the House of Assembly seat before he was offered the deputy governorship position by the late sage Obafemi Awolowo.
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