The PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State, Abdul-Azeez (Jandor) Adediran, said he couldn’t put up “a good fight” in the polls without the support of some party chieftains against his ambition.

“We went into this election against all odds and even against some of our leaders within the PDP,” Jandor told a news conference on Monday at his campaign office in Ikeja, shortly after he lost his governorship bid to Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC.

He added that he was still standing “even when some respected leaders, supposedly, in the party had to leave us for crumbs.”

Although Mr Adediran did not categorically name any chieftain, the party’s former deputy national chairman, Bode George, had endorsed Labour Party’s candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, under Omo Eko Pataki, a socio-cultural group in Lagos.

The candidate explained that he ran the poll by himself and his team, saying, “not a single money from the party at the state or national level, after February 25 presidential and National Assembly Elections.”

Mr Adediran said he felt proud that in the face of huge suppression and rumours about him being a mole in the PDP, he had been able to justify that he was in the race to truly bring a breath of fresh air.

“We stayed behind to see this to the last. Even when some left the party to form a false alliance, we stood our ground to see this to fruition.

“I want to commend people of Lagos, all loyal PDP leaders who stayed to see that the election came to a logical conclusion,” he said.

He also stressed that the outcome of the gubernatorial election was shocking and not a reflection of the party’s worth.

On Monday morning, INEC declared Mr Sanwo-Olu the winner of the election, having polled 762,134  to defeat 15 other contestants.

Mr Sanwo-Olu polled 762,134 votes to defeat his closest rival, Mr Rhodes-Vivour, who scored 312,329 votes in the election.

The PDP candidate garnered 62,449 votes to come third in the poll.

(NAN)