The Lagos state Peoples Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate, Jimi Agbaje, has told Lagosians not to listen to the quotes going around that he is just someone’s stooge.
He was interviewed on Channels TV’s Rubbin Minds yesterday and he explained that his relationship with Bode George is just professional.
“Bode George is my party leader in Lagos, that’s a statement of fact. I’m not his stooge, if that’s what you want to hear,” Agbaje said.
“And those who know me know that I’m nobody’s stooge. There’s nothing like that. He’s a party leader.
“But I think again, we are gonna be very fair, we’ve got to accept one thing, it’s either you believe in the rule of law or you don’t believe in the rule of law.
“Now if a man is charged to court and sentenced for a crime and a superior court reverses that sentence, then he’s not guilty. So it’s either you accept it, it’s not fair when you take something when you think it favours you, and that’s important.”
Sunday’s programme was expected to have Agbaje sit down with the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s gubernatorial candidate, Akinwunmi Ambode, but the APC man turned down the invitation.
Agbaje went on the show and praised the idea of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
He called the idea a good one but lamented the implementation of the BRT services in the state, saying it could be done better.
He also promised to improve water transportation in the state to ease the pressure on the roads.
“What we’ve had on the waterways are very small boats, there are so many people who are actually very scared of these small boats. So we are going to get bigger boats, ferries more or less, so people feel safer. It’s only the strong that takes those small boats. So you got to do more.”
Agbaje also went on to deny rumours that he plans to ban the popular Lagos bus, the Danfo bus, and said he would only discourage the springing up of illegal bus stops in the metropolis.
On the issue of state police, Agbaje said that it would enable communities to be better policed.
“I’m not sure it’s an APC thing. I’m an advocate of state policing and I’m not APC. I believe we need to have state police because as a state government you’ve got priorities. The police is federal, it’s stretched.
“The benefits (of state police) are more. You can talk guidelines, you can talk about the kind of arms that the state police can have, you can talk about their jurisdiction, their limitations. These are things that can be addressed.
“I think it’s the APC that is against it. The National Conference finished and recommended state police. APC don’t seem to like the outcome of the National Conference. President Jonathan is saying very clearly that when he comes back, he’s gonna ensure that the National Conference report is adopted. It’s the other party that is saying one thing and doing something else.”
“The benefits (of state police) are more. You can talk guidelines, you can talk about the kind of arms that the state police can have, you can talk about their jurisdiction, their limitations. These are things that can be addressed.
“I think it’s the APC that is against it. The National Conference finished and recommended state police. APC don’t seem to like the outcome of the National Conference. President Jonathan is saying very clearly that when he comes back, he’s gonna ensure that the National Conference report is adopted. It’s the other party that is saying one thing and doing something else.”
Agbaje talked about taxes and said he would focus on fair taxes and said the government was meant to help the people and not over burden citizens caught in tax nets.
“What happens today is government in wanting to raise money takes advantage of the regulatory agencies to raise money in a wrong manner,” said Mr. Agbaje.
“The said regulatory agency has a major objective but what you find today is that the major objective of those regulatory agencies is revenue generation, rather than what they were set up for.
“So you have the LASTMA for example, LASTMA’s objective is to ensure free flow of traffic. But God help you if LASTMA catches you for anything. They are gonna ask you for your tax clearance, if it’s a company they are gonna ask you for the director’s tax clearance, they’ll fine you heavily.
“If you want to build a house for example, you want to apply for approval plans for construction permit, the whole essence of applying is to ensure that what you wanna build is not gonna collapse on anybody’s head and to make sure that it’s right.
“The said regulatory agency has a major objective but what you find today is that the major objective of those regulatory agencies is revenue generation, rather than what they were set up for.
“So you have the LASTMA for example, LASTMA’s objective is to ensure free flow of traffic. But God help you if LASTMA catches you for anything. They are gonna ask you for your tax clearance, if it’s a company they are gonna ask you for the director’s tax clearance, they’ll fine you heavily.
“If you want to build a house for example, you want to apply for approval plans for construction permit, the whole essence of applying is to ensure that what you wanna build is not gonna collapse on anybody’s head and to make sure that it’s right.
“Government puts its fees that is such that it discourages people from even coming forward to apply. Some of the fallout is that a lot of the houses that are being built today people are not just coming forward to apply, and they are building without that.
“Again, it discourages people from investing in housing because of these kinds of restrictions.”
Agbaje denied suggestions that he has been participating in negative campaigning.
“Why I said ‘I’m not one of them,’ the message is that I’m not a typical politician. So it has nothing to do with party, it’s got to do with politics in general.
“You tend to look at politicians, they tell lies. I’m not your typical politician. I want you to take me for what I am. If I tell you something I want you to believe what I’m saying. I’m not saying it just for saying sake. And that’s what’s working for me.”
Bode George is the PDP leader in Lagos state and has been said to be the master puppeteer of all PDP activities in the southwest.
