2015 Lagos Gov Race: I’m Ready To Battle Agbaje —Dosunmu

Kazeem Ugbodaga

Former Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr Ade Dosunmu says he is ready to battle new decampee, Jimi Agbaje for the governorship ticket of the party for the 2015 election in Lagos State, western Nigeria.

He also said the party is now more formidable to wrest power out of the hands of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos next year.

Dosunmu, who declared his intention to vie for the governorship seat of Lagos State for a second time, said things had changed since he lost to Governor Babatunde Fashola in 2011 as the party had cemented relationship and now ready to strike.

In an interview in Lagos, he said he was sure that he would defeat the APC candidate in next year’s election.

“One thing I know clearly in this party is that there is no imposition. There is nothing like imposition in PDP. Everybody is welcome into our party. We received the news of Agbaje’s defection to our party. He is welcome.

“If the present governor is ready to join the PDP, we will go and give him our membership card. In politics, I believe in the school of thought that the more the merrier. Joining a political party is one thing. Ambition is another thing. He must first join PDP. He must first belong to the party. He must first contribute to the building and development of the platform on which he wants to contest.

“But there is no discrimination in PDP. If you come in today and intend to contest, you are free as long as you meet the requirements in the constitution. So, we have no problem with anybody coming in. we will all go to the field. It is the field that will determine who wins at last.

“What the party basically needs is a credible candidate that will be able to win the governorship election. It is the primaries that will produce a candidate. It is not outside the primaries. It is the primaries that will produce a candidate just like what we all witnessed in Ekiti,” he said.

According to him, when he contested against Fashola in 2011, the PDP had a good showing and did its best, saying that he lost then because Lagos residents were not fully ready for change then.

“Given the fact that a lot had happened in the last four years and the perception of people on how the state government has impact on them, I have decided to give it a try again. And this time around, I am very positive that my party will win Lagos.

“I am also very positive that members of my party who gave their trust the other time would do the same again having been in the party; served the party loyally and contributed my quota to the development of the party, even when the party was not that attractive. I am counting on the support of the members of the party to give me their confidence again to be the standard bearer of the party in 2015,” he said.