In a desperate bid to make the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led government in Lagos State look bad at every turn, the governorship candidate of the main opposition party in the state, People’s Democratic Party, PDP, may gradually be eroding the sympathy Lagosians have for him.
Recall that the candidate, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, has been in the news for one thing or the other ever since his declaration as the party’s flagbearer, attacking the state government.
Noteworthy was what political watchers saw as his attempt at encouraging lawlessness and indiscipline in the state by openly aligning with traffic offenders, whose vehicles were impounded and auctioned off for various offences.
Jandor, in company of the media, visited the offenders, pacified them over their losses and compensated them new vehicles.
The PDP’s candidate is in the news again but this time around, his attempt at playing to the gallery using the memory of an innocent girl, who was murdered in March as a vehicle, may have backfired.
Freelanews recalls that a 22-year-old fashion designer, Oluwabamise Ayanwole, was allegedly murdered by Nice Andrew Omininikoron, a former driver of Bus Rapid Transit in March 2022.
Recently, Bamishe’s family cried out for assistance over the accumulated N500,000 mortuary bill of the late fashion designer.
But on October 14, 2022, late Bamishe’s elder brother, Oluwapelumi Ayanwole-Abegunde, in a short video, went viral on social media thanking Jandor for offsetting the accumulated mortuary bills and lambasting the Lagos State government for not coming to their rescue.
It was alleged that after a meeting of his representative and the deceased’s family members at his Liberty House, Ikeja, Jandor said that he was touched by the pain of Bamise’s family.
The governorship candidate, who is observing lesser Hajj in Saudi Arabia, was represented at the meeting by the spokesman of the JandorFunke4Governor Campaign Organisation.
“This incident happened about eight months ago, and Dr Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran has been concerned.
“He is a man with milk of human kindness and has visited the family members to commiserate and identify with them.
“He has been keeping in touch to find a way of ameliorating your pain.
“The life of Lagos residents matters so much to Jandor,” the spokesman was widely quoted.
However, in a turn of events, Akanni Oladimeji Balogun, AOB, an aide to the Special Assistant on Education to the Lagos State governor, Barr. Tokunbo Wahab, has alleged that there was no iota of truth in the claim and advised Jandor to stop misinforming the public.
“I read in the media of how Lagos PDP gubernatorial candidate, Olajide Adediran was said to have paid for Bamise Ayanwole’s mortuary bill. It is quiet unfortunate that a party that has been time and time again rejected in Lagos State and her candidate is struggling to be noticed thereby playing politics with the death of a young lady.
“Let it be on record that Jide Adediran known as Jandor wasn’t the one that paid for Bamise’s mortuary bill. It is a wicked LIE! Tokunbo Wahab paid on behalf of the State government since 12th of October, 2022,” AOB wrote.
The aide, therefore implored Jandor and his handlers to desist from dragging the state government into disrespecting the dead.
“If he, Jandor, later gave money to the brother, the family can thank him without bringing the Lagos State Government into it.
“Attached with are details of the transaction and Invoice,” Balogun submitted.
However, Governor Sanwo-Olu has reiterated that the Lagos State Government won’t stop until the killers of Bamise Ayanwole are brought to the books. He promised to see the murder case to a logical conclusion with the offenders facing the full wrath of the law.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
