Thousands of Nigerians from all walks of life on Tuesday thronged the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS) in Lagos to receive Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, and Peter Obi, his running mate.
The duo, who stormed Lagos with the party’s leadership for the presidential campaign rally five days to the election billed for Saturday, February 16, were received by teeming crowd of supporters, many who stormed the campaign venue with dancing troupes, singing and dancing.
Both Atiku and Obi, who spoke at the rally dwelt on the high rate of unemployment and insecurity in the country, which they promised to tackle if elected, even as they blamed the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for the sorry state of the nation.
Atiku, in his speech, reminded the people of his resolve to create jobs, even as he admonished Lagosians to vote for him as he intended to tackle unemployment and create wealth for the business hub of the nation.
Atiku assured Lagosians that he would deliver on every promise he made to Nigerians, which he said was not the case with the All Progressives Congress (APC), which, according to him, failed the citizens on all the promises made to them in 2015.
The presidential candidate, who stormed Lagos with several party chieftains, restated his determination to restructure the federation, even as he pledged to respect the rule of law and the constitution.
Atiku stressed: “I am not APC; I will deliver on all campaign promises. APC when it came into power in 2015 promised to create jobs, but it failed to deliver, rather Nigerians lost their jobs in thousands.
“They promised to defeat Boko Haram. Then Boko Haram was in only North East. Now, it has spread to North West and North Central. They promised to fight poverty; it is unfortunate that Nigeria is the headquarters of poverty in the world as of today.”
Atiku, a former Vice President during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, said he would respect the judiciary, adding that Lagosians should also vote PDP in the coming governorship election as they would see the things they had lost under APC in the past 20 years.
Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State, in his brief remark, also solicited for the votes of Lagosians, stressing that their manifesto crafted bearing in mind the need to turn the nation around.
Other speakers at the rally lamented the various challenges the country had been going through under the Buhari administration, including insecurity, bad economy and job losses.
In the entourage were Dr Bukola Saraki, Director-General of the PDP presidential campaign; Prince Uche Secondus the PDP National Chairman; Mr. Jimi Agbaje, the party’s governorship candidate in Lagos; Atiku’s wife, Dr. Titi Abubakar, Chief Olabode George, former Vice National Chairman in South West; former governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, former governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniels, and several others.
Secondus, while speaking, berated the APC government for having created unemployment in the country, shut down industries, impoverished the people, collapsed the economy, stressing that Atiku was a better alternative.
He said Atiku had been tested in the private sector and public sector and had come out successful, pointing out that he would rescue Nigeria, create jobs, open up fully financial industries and restructure the country.
Secondus said the country had been locked down since Buhari came into power, even he sounded a note of warning to the APC not to rig the election, stressing that they (PDP) had got intelligence that results of the election had been printed already in Dubai ahead of the polls.
He maintained that that PDP would no longer tolerate rigging, considering what it suffered in the hands of APC in Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections.
Saraki, on his own, stated that the PDP’s victory could be seen from the huge acceptance by the people, saying that a vote for Atiku was a vote for better economy.
He urged Nigerians not to allow themselves to be deceived by the APC, which he added, had nothing good to offer them, except hardship, poverty, unemployment and disrespect for the rule of law.
Bode George, in his speech, told Lagosians to be very sensitive and go out on Saturday to vote for Atiku on Saturday, and in the March 2 governorship election, vote for Jimi Agbaje.
He lamented that APC administration had closed all the roads in Lagos and daily Lagosians were faced with traffic gridlock on Apapa road and some other major roads in Lagos with the attendant loss of huge revenue and man hour.
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He called on everyone to use their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and send APC packing.
Earlier during the rally, some hoodlums attempted to disrupt the rally as a fight broke out among a group of boys not far from the main podium where party leaders were seated.
The incident, which happened at about 1.50p.m, saw the miscreants throwing punches and chairs at each other, forcing those around the place to fled, as policemen chased the hoodlums around the premises.
This continued as the party’s flags were being presented to candidates for National Assembly positions.
The official who was coordinating proceedings said: “I can see some people are here to foment trouble. Those who have come here to disturb this place will be treated as criminals.”
However, everyone was bodily searched before being allowed into the TBS before the event commenced, even as popular Fuji musician, Saheed Osupa, thrilled the crowd.
