PUNCH
The immediate past Chairman of the Labour Party in Lagos State, Olukayode Salako, tells AYOOLA OLASUPO how he was forced to step aside and the circumstances that led to the defeat of the party’s governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour
You contested the House of Representatives election after you resigned as the chairman of the Labour Party in Lagos State.Can you recall that journey?
I didn’t resign as the chairman, I was forced to step aside. The Obidients said they could not trust me with the campaign funds the presidential candidate, Peter Obi, wanted to send to Lagos because my wife worked for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s presidential bid and the All Progressives Congress. They saw me as Tinubu’s man, so they said I was a mole in the Labour Party. They said if any money was sent to Lagos, I would divert it for personal use or work for Tinubu. For those reasons, I was forced to step aside.
Were you a mole and who were those behind such accusations?
I wasn’t a mole. It was Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, whom I discovered and I worked hard to get the governorship ticket for, that orchestrated my removal. He betrayed me. He wasn’t doing well with the party as the governorship candidate and I reported him to the Forum of Leaders and Elders’ Council of the party for them to tell him to do the right thing. Instead of that, he decided to make me his enemy and he became vindictive. He pushed me aside and was working with strange people that did not know how he got the ticket. He didn’t run anything by me and because there was no way he could operate without working with the state chairman of the party, he chose to work with some persons for me to be removed and he did that in connivance with the current state chairman of the party, Dayo Ekong; the secretary, Sam Okpala; and his running mate, Islamiyat Oyefusi. They all thought I was a mole who would not make them win Lagos State, but we can see what happened afterwards.
What was it like when you worked together?
He started misbehaving the day after he got the ticket. However, I was already deeply involved, so I couldn’t go back at that point. I had to continue working towards his success at the poll. After he got the ticket, he became arrogant, intolerant to opposing views, and started calling himself my leader. His type cannot rule a local government let alone come to rule Lagos. He didn’t carry me along. I ran the office of the state party chairman for five months without anybody giving me ‘shishi’ because they saw me as Tinubu’s mole. I didn’t betray anybody but Gbadebo and those party chieftains in Lagos betrayed me, and God does not reward betrayal. I felt betrayed and badly treated by the Lagos State chapter of the Labour Party and I am not happy at all.
Your party did well in the presidential election in Lagos, what do you think was responsible for your loss in the election?
It was because all of us were involved in the presidential election. Peter Obi should have known that he was running an election against the ruling party, a progressive political movement in Nigeria, but he was banking on the credible votes of Nigerians. He got it wrong because power is not served free. Even Tinubu said that power is to be grabbed. You grab, struggle, fight for it and run away with it. That is the cultural operational mechanism of the man Peter Obi contested against. INEC has declared the winner and Peter Obi is already exploring options to challenge it in court. Let’s see what will come out of it.
