By Adeyemi Adeleye
The Lagos State Governorship Candidate of Action Alliance (AA), Mr Tope Balogun, on Monday said that the party was working to garner two million votes to emerge winner in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state.
Balogun told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that his campaign foot soldiers and teams had the mandate to clinch two million votes from the over six million intending voters in the state, come March 11.
The 40-year-old Computer Scientist and IT expert said that his team was prepared to spring a surprise in the poll.
According to him, with all the alleged defects in the past elections, the ruling party has not been able to garner up to one million votes in any of the elections since 1999.
Balogun said: “Our victory will be unimaginable because our target number of votes is going to surpass whatever they (the ruling party) have been having in the past.
“We are adopting direct-contact approach in our campaign. We will have block votes in different sectors of the society which is going to turn things around.
“These voters are prepared, some of them have not been voting before because of apathy occasioned by various philosophies like votes do not count. We are giving them assurances that votes will count.
“I believe we (downtrodden) are more than the rich and we believe we can defeat them.
“We are going to show them, we are more than them because it is a game of numbers.
“I am looking at clinching about two million votes and if I am able to get that, going by what we have been doing, I am going to win.”
Balogun, former Lagos State Secretary of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), said he was from the downtrodden class of the society and was in the race to challenge the status quo.
According to him, the need to bring relief and comfort to the masses necessitated his contest for the topmost seat in the state.
On his campaign, Balogun said that the party was deploying new strategies to combat the ruling party and spring a surprise.
He said that the party had a game plan and could not do the campaign the same way others were doing it.
“We cannot do it the same way they (ruling party) are doing it and beat them to it. They are veterans, we cannot do the same thing they are doing and win the election.
“So, we are strategic, we are using a new method of reaching out to the electorate since the rule is that whoever has the highest number of votes emerges winner.
“What I am interested in is getting to the electorate to get the highest number of votes cast.
“I have been campaigning and I have my network of people working in the field and we have been getting commitment from voters,” Balogun said.
The AA candidate said that his goal was to bring in equity and comfort to the people, and provide a leadership where everyone would get what was due to them.
“Our ambition is not to enrich ourselves or enrich others, it is to give comfort. Governance is not business venture to enrich leaders,” he said.
Balogun said it was unfortunate that some people in the corridors of power got to office to enrich themselves.
“They are building lots of empires at the expense of the comfort they are expected to channel our resources to,” he said.
The candidate, who described Late Alhaji Lateef Jakande, first Executive Governor of Lagos State as his mentor, said that Lagos could work under a leader that had the will power and was contented. (NAN)
