Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has restated his confidence in the quality of workers in the state civil service.
He said they are the best in the country and are not in the class of people who can be manipulated for electoral gains.
A statement by the Sanwo-Olu/Hamzat media office said contrary to claims by the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Jimi Agbaje, that Sanwo-Olu’s meeting with the civil servants was aimed at manipulating them, the interactive session with the civil servants was a continuation of his strategic engagements with several critical stakeholders in the Lagos project.
According to the APC governorship candidate, the interactive sessions are aimed at seeking the understanding of every member of the public on the most pressing needs that they would want government to do for them as well as to further demonstrate part of his campaign mantra of inclusive government.
“It is unfortunate that Mr. Agbaje, who we strongly consider to be a learner in the art and science of politics always misses the point. For Agbaje to describe our meeting with the public servants in the manner he did shows his disdain for consultative politics and government.
“How politically naïve he is? Why will a governorship candidate not consider the civil servants who will help to execute all government policies, programmes and agenda as major stakeholders during his or her campaign? We cannot but accede to the fact that the PDP candidate is truly a learner.
“It is also an insult on the creme of public servants in Lagos State, to be described as people who could be easily manipulated for electoral gains,” Sanwo-Olu said.
Agbaje had, through a statement from his campaign office, criticised Sanwo-Olu for going to Alausa to share rice to civil servants, an allegation the Sanwo-Olu campaign office said was a result of poor understanding of what actually happened.
“Agbaja left the substance for the chaff and sensational,” Sanwo-Olu campaign office said.
Meanwhile, Grand Patron of the Buhari/Osinbajo Mandate Group, Chief Lanre Razak, has said Sanwo-Olu’s victory on Saturday will fast-track socio-economic transformation of the state.
He said Sanwo-Olu’s victory will also serve as the needed impetus for the party to consolidate on its current developmental strides for the greater welfare of the people.
Razak, who disclosed this in an interview, also commended Lagos electorate for voting for President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the APC candidates in the February 23 presidential and National Assembly polls.
He said Buhari’s re-election and the party’s landslide victory at the polls showed that Lagosians and, indeed, Nigerians are appreciative of the numerous people-oriented achievements of the APC-led Federal Government in the last four years.