Both the gubernatorial candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and People Democratic Party (PDP) failed to show up at the tw0-day governorship debate organised by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Lagos Television (LTV), citing busy schedules.
When the first debate held on Wednesday only three out of the expected eight contestant turned up
On Wednesday, Labour Party (LP) representative, Abiodun, said his principal, the party’s flag bearer, decided not to attend the debate due to his foresight that the “major actors”, Ambode and Agbaje, would be absent.
Femi Adesina, moderator of the debate and president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), was quick to dismiss Abiodun’s claims, saying Agbaje and Ambode were slated for Thursday and they would attend.
The aspirants present at the debate on Wednesday made several allegations against Ambode and Agbaje.
Akele, who spoke on the platform of late Gani Fawehinmi-founded NCP, said the ruling government had made a law to build a N700m mansion for ex-governors in Abuja and N500m mansion in Lagos from the tax payers’ money when the tax payer gets N2,000 as pension.
“Somebody called me and said that he was taking a pension of N2,000 per month in a state where a former governor was going to have a house in Abuja worth 700m,” Akele said.
“Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed that law, and it has been replicated by Fashola; that is the height of injustice. “Let me also say jocularly that if my children had attended LASU (Lagos State University), they won’t graduate because the school fees became unaffordable; they attended the University of Lagos and paid about N25,000.”
He went on to describe the ruling government as callous, alleging that it was making life easy for the elites. “This government is callous,” he said. “How can someone who enjoyed free education at the University of Benin be the apostle of increase in fees beyond the reach of the poor parent?”