by Deji Abiodun
Photo Credit: Lola Shoneyin
The Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party says every person that attended the one-million-man march of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos received at least N5,000 each.
Thousands of All Progressives Congress members and supporters, on Saturday, came together for a solidarity march in Lagos, ahead of the March 28 and April 11 elections. The march, which commenced at 8.20am, began at Maryland via Ikorodu Road to Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos .
The opposition party in Lagos in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Taofik Gani, said groups that attended the march received between N1m and N10m.
The PDP said the APC was deceiving Lagosians by tagging the march as “one-million-march” because the Teslim Balogun Stadium where the walk ended, could only accommodate 24,000 people.
The PDP said during the rally, posters and billboards of its candidates were vandalised while two people in private vehicles were attacked for carrying the sticker of the PDP governorship candidate, Mr. Jimi Agbaje.
The statement read, “The PDP has described as blatant falsehood and over exaggeration of the number of attendees which the APC continues to put at one Million probably to give General Muhammadu Buhari false hope in Lagos State.
“The capacity of the stadium used is 24,325 and could not have accommodated over 100,000 without stampede! The Party notes that the APC was over ambitious to expect one million lovers of the APC in Lagos State at this period that the masses are disenchanted with its policies; a reason why Governor Babatunde Fashola could not attend the rally.
“The PDP posits that the realistic figure of about 11,000 APC members actually participated due to coercion or monetary inducement.
“The PDP further wants the security agencies to investigate the anomalies observed at the rally which include: Assault of persons; destruction of PDP campaign materials; use of abusive, threat, provocative speeches and songs.
“We condemn the actions of some overzealous members of the APC who participated in the Buhari/Osibajo rally but actually deployed to unleash on the banners and other campaign materials of PDP on the rally routes.
“Lagosians in two private cars and a commercial bus were harassed and the vehicles maliciously damaged because they had the stickers of the PDP and Agbaje. We blame the APC for not curtailing the excesses of such members in order to prevent such assaults.
“The number of persons at the rally can at best be near 11,000. This is in spite our intelligence report that individual participants were mobilised with N5,000 while the groups got between N1m and N10M each.”
