Tinubu, Osinbajo, Aregbesola Others Lead One-million-man March For Buhari

• Buhari Conspicuously Absent

THE Mainland of Lagos wore a carnival look  Saturday, when members and party officials of the All Progressives Congress (APC) marched from Ikorodu Road to Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere to demonstrate their loyalty for the party. 

  Tagged, One-million-man March For Buhari, the gathering attracted huge crowd estimated about two million, according to sources from the APC secretariat.

   Beginning from 7:30 am, party members in branded attires and with posters of various candidates of the party, started arriving in batches at the Maryland end of their meeting point. Before 8am, the corridor was already filled with people, setting the tone for the march. 

   Drumming, singing, dancing and chanting party slogans, the politicians by 8:30 set out in slow march from Maryland to Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, the terminal point.

   Among notable party members leading the march were the APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; running mate of the APC presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and his wife; the APC governorship candidate in the state, Akinwunmi Ambode; Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State and members of Lagos State House of Assembly led by their Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.

   Others were the senatorial candidates of the APC: Lagos East, Gbenga Ashafa; Lagos Central, Remi Tinubu; and Lagos West, Solomon Olamileka Adeola and wife of the Lagos State governor, Abimbola Fashola. 

  Conspicuously absent, however, is the presidential candidate of the party, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

    In his address, Tinubu urged supporters of the party to vote for change in the March 28 presidential election and for continuity in the governorship election scheduled for April 12.

   He said the long expected change that Nigerians hoped for could have been achieved on February 14, if not for the PDP and its cronies that conspired to shift the elections.

 Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said President Jonathan has failed Nigerians and should be voted out of office come march 28.

   Comparing the President to Prophet Jonah in the Bible, who God gave message of hope and deliverance to the children of Israelites, but was later cast into the raging sea, Aregbesola said the original purpose of God for Mr. President is to come and deliver the country, but since he got into power, he abandoned his divine assignment and plunged the country into hardship; it is, therefore, a must for us to cast him out of office with our votes on March 28.”

   Meanwhile the Lagos State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described the APC march as tattered and poorly coordinated.

  The party said the exercise further exposed APC as fatigued of ideas to continue governing the state and would be disgraced come March 28. 

  In a statement sent to The Guardian, yesterday, the PDP spokesman, Taofik Gani, said the number of attendees quoted was exaggerated, adding that APC is giving Buhari false hope in Lagos.

  Gani said the capacity of the Teslim Balogun Stadium is 24,325 and could not have accommodated over 100,000 without stampede.

   The party noted that the APC was over ambitious to expect one million loyalists in Lagos State at a period the people are disenchanted with its policies, a reason Governor Babatunde Fashola could not attend the rally. A realistic figure of about 11,000 APC members actually participated due to coercion or monetary inducement.

   The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), however, enjoined security agencies to investigate the anomalies observed at the rally, which included: assault of persons, destruction of PDP campaign materials, use of abusive, threat, provocative speeches and songs.