I Must Free Lagos from You, Agbaje Tells Tinubu

I Must Free Lagos from You, Agbaje Tells Tinubu

Segun James

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has said the state must be freed from the stranglehold of its former governor and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, if the state must move forward.

Agbaje said one of the ways to stop Tinubu is to cancel the running contract of the Alpha Beta Consulting, a firm said to be owned by Tinubu.
According to Agbaje, the firm receives certain percentage of the revenue Lagos earns in taxes, which he alleged is against international best practices.

“I could be here all day talking about Free Lagos. Let me start from the basic Freedom of Information Act; Lagos is still run like a closed shop; like a private company.
“Lagos has refused to domesticate the Freedom of Information Bill; so, we don’t know what plays out in Lagos. So, we are talking of freedom to have access to exactly how they are running our government.

“In the last 20 years, Lagos has spent some N7 trillion, and we are asking what have we got for N7 trillion? Are we getting value for money?
“Out of that N7 trillion, there is a private company that takes a percentage of that N7 trillion, and we are asking, for what purpose? There is private company fund collector, Alpha Beta or whatever, collects that much.

“We don’t even know what the percentage is; it could be 12 per cent, 10 per cent, it could be eight per cent.”
On the legality of the contract between the state government and Alpha Beta, Agbaje stressed that “it is not about being legal; it is about being moral, because if you tell me that of every amount of money that Lagos spends, there is a private company that is collecting, and I am asking, that is taxpayers money, why should it be, to what purpose?”

“It is against standard practice because we don’t see what they are doing and we don’t even know what the percentage is, and I don’t see value for money, so its freedom from that.”

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