Lagos Guber: Rhodes-Vivour traces Sanwo-Olu to his Ijebu root, says his is disrespectful

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos state, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour has described the incumbent governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, as disrespectful for not attending debates.

Rhodes-Vivour stressed that the governor is disrespectful for not agreeing to speak to Lagosians through debates that were organized ahead of the 2023 governorship election.

The Labour Party governorship candidate insisted that it is disrespectful to the family of Rhodes-Vivour for anyone to say he is not a Lagosian.

He insisted that his ancestors have been involved in the politics of Lagos since the colonial era as he claimed that Sanwo-Olu is from Ijebu, an ethnic group in Ogun state.

“I mean it’s an insult, it’s a big insult first of all. The Governor is actually extremely disrespectful; he is extremely disrespectful to Lagosians because after they gave him the position for four years, you owe it to them to come and account for your stewardship. Be it a debate or whatever”, Rhodes-Vivour told Vanguard online TV on Tuesday.

“To add to that is that a man from Ijebu is questioning a Rhodes-Vivour. I mean my great-great-grandfather was the first Nigerian-Lagosian that was admitted into government in this country under Governor Bourdilion’s government; after which was Adeyemo Alakija, you then have Doherty.

“So when you see me and Funsho Doherty, it’s almost like history repeating itself. These are old Lagos families.

“To bring this kind of disrespect because you are desperate; if you had done the job well, you wouldn’t need to intimidate or suppress people’s votes.”

On the other hand, Rhodes-Vivour has called on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to collapse its political structure for him.

Rhodes-Vivour claimed that some political parties in Lagos have already collapsed theirs for him and he is expecting the PDP to do the same.

He said: “I have a relationship with the PDP. I came from the PDP. I was in the PDP for six years. I was the senatorial candidate for PDP in 2019.

“I had the most votes in the party. I know the leaders of the party. We understand that at a practical level, we need to have as many people working together, especially because this election process is not free and fair.

“They promised us the electronic transmission of votes, but that did not happen. We saw the intimidation and harassment, and manipulations at the ward collation, LG collation.

“So we need everybody to work together to save and rescue Lagos. We are in talks with several parties.

“A few parties have collapsed their structures for us. I expect that the PDP would do the same very soon.”