Jimi Agbaje, 57, is too old to Govern Lagos � Fashola says

Lagos�State governor, Mr Babatunde Fahsola, on Wednesday, tasked Lagos residents not to vote the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Mr Jimi Agbaje�because he is too old to rule the state.

He said his party’s candidate, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has age advantage to carry on with the task from where he would leave governance in May 29.

Also, the national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, enjoined the people not to vote Agbaje, who he said could not manage his personal business well.

Both Fashola and Tinubu spoke on Wednesday, at the Lagos West senatorial campaign of the APC governorship candidate, Mr Akinwumi Ambode, which took place at Sky Power Play Ground, beside the Nigeria Police Headquarters, Ikeja.

Agbaje will be 58 years on March 2, having been born in 1957.

Fashola, who did not mention name while addressing the crowd consisting of leadership of the party, said it was Ambode that had the wherewitthal to govern Lagos as a young, successful accountant.

According to Fashola, the task of governing Lagos State was daunting and needed vigour on the part of the person at the helm of affairs, recalling that in 2007 when he took over governance at age 44, he could count the number of grey hair on his head.

�Today, at 52, I am counting the number of black hair on my head. Akinwunmi Ambode is the man that can do it. If you put an old man there, he cannot do it. If you call him in the night, he may not pick your calls,” he warned.

Fashola described the PDP as termites, always ready to destroy everything they laid their hands upon, while describing them further as worse than Ebola virus.

Addressing the gathering, Tinubu, while expressing appreciation to God for making him discover Fashola and now Ambode as talents suitable to rule Lagos, said Ambode as the APC candidate was arrived at based on clamour by youths in Lagos who, he said, demanded they wanted another youth like Fashola.

Tinubu said true to the promise he made, Fashola had not disappointed the people of Lagos, adding that his tenure in office could be described as eight years of unbroken promises.

He called on the people to vote for change by sending President Goodluck Jonathan packing in February poll.

Tinubu said Lagos was not ready for any experiment, recalling that the PDP governorship candidate, Agbaje, was with them in the Alliance for Democracy (AD), but was defeated by better candidates in the party’s governorship primaries ahead 2007 poll.

He also recalled that Agbaje rejected the offer of deputy governorship of defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before he defected to contest on the platform of Democratic Party Alliance (DPA) and lost to Fashola in the general election.

In his address, the APC governorship candidate, Ambode, said it was certain that the party would win the coming election, promising to run a government that would not descriminate among the ethnic nationalities in the state if voted into office in February.

Additional Reports via Tribune