— Sanwo-Olu, Obasa, Ojelabi, Edun urge grassroots mobilisation
By Olasunkanmi Akoni
LAGOS — Convener of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, Olajide Adediran, popularly known as Jandor, has inaugurated a support group for President Bola Tinubu, Lagos State governorship candidate Dr Obafemi Hamzat and other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates, targeting more than three million votes for the party in the state in the 2027 elections.
The JANDOR Support Group for PBAT-KOH 2027 was inaugurated on Thursday at the Eko FM Marquee, Lagos Television premises, Agidingbi, Ikeja, with party leaders, local government chairmen, traditional rulers and members of the Lagos4Lagos Movement in attendance.
Adediran, the group’s lead visioner, said the initiative was established to fulfil his commitment to support whoever emerged as the APC’s candidate and contribute to the party’s electoral mobilisation ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Speaking to journalists after the inauguration, Jandor said the move followed his withdrawal from the Lagos governorship race after the party’s candidate-selection process.
He said the Lagos4Lagos Movement’s structure had been aligned with the APC from the state executive level to senatorial districts, local governments and wards.
According to him, two representatives from each polling unit would be inaugurated separately at the local-government level to canvass support for APC candidates in the presidential and governorship elections.
Adediran stressed that the group was designed to complement, not compete with, the party’s main campaign council.
He urged members to respect the party’s leadership structure and persuade voters through peaceful engagement rather than intimidation or insults.
The former governorship aspirant also called on members to place the party’s collective interest above personal ambitions and extend mobilisation to markets, motor parks, workplaces, religious communities and neighbourhoods.
“That declaration was not made casually. It was a statement of our belief in party supremacy, internal democracy, discipline and the greater interest of our political family,” he said, referring to his earlier commitment to support the party after the selection of its candidate.
He added that although party members could have different ambitions and opinions during the candidate-selection process, the party’s decision should take precedence once the process was concluded.
“We are therefore here today to honour that promise,” he said.
Adediran reiterated that the support group would not operate as a parallel campaign structure.
“Let me state this unequivocally: JANDOR Support Group for PBAT-KOH is a complementary mobilisation structure, not a parallel campaign council.
“We are not setting up another authority to compete with the existing one. We are building additional hands to support a common mission,” he said.
He pledged that the group would cooperate with the main campaign council and follow the party’s overall campaign direction, while using its grassroots network to widen voter engagement.
Three-million-vote target
The chairman of Ibeju-Lekki Local Council Development Area and chairman of the association of council chairmen in Lagos, Sesan Olowa, pledged the support of chairmen across the state’s 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas for Tinubu, Hamzat and other APC candidates.
Olowa urged the new group to work alongside existing campaign structures, stressing that cooperation was necessary to avoid duplication and internal competition.
He announced a target of more than three million votes for the APC in Lagos and called for mobilisation across the state’s 13,325 polling units.
He also urged the group to engage residents across communities and ensure that its campaign reached voters at the grassroots.
Former Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, commended Jandor for keeping his promise to support the party after withdrawing from the governorship contest.
Edun described grassroots mobilisation as important to electoral participation and encouraged supporters to engage registered voters in their communities.
He also urged political stakeholders to contribute their time and resources to party activities, saying political participation required consistent engagement beyond attending meetings.
Sanwo-Olu, Ojelabi urge cooperation
Representing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, his Chief of Staff and state coordinator of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, Tayo Ayinde, urged members to conduct their activities peacefully and in accordance with party directives.
Ayinde said the Lagos4Lagos Movement’s grassroots network could strengthen the APC’s mobilisation efforts ahead of the 2027 elections.
He urged coordinators to avoid factional disputes, maintain contact with residents and communicate the policies and programmes of the federal and state governments.
Ayinde also reiterated the three-million-vote target, urging members to sustain community engagement and follow the timetable for electoral activities.
The Lagos APC chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, formally inaugurated the group and called on its members to work with existing party structures.
Ojelabi praised Adediran for honouring his commitment to support the APC after the governorship candidate-selection process, adding that the initiative could provide more party members with opportunities to contribute to mobilisation.
He urged the group’s coordinators to work with party structures at ward and polling-unit levels and engage community development associations.
Another speaker at the event stressed the need for political leaders to invest in grassroots structures and demonstrate their capacity to mobilise support at polling-unit, ward and local-government levels.
The inauguration marked the formal commencement of the support group’s activities. Adediran said the next phase would involve inaugurating its polling-unit representatives across local governments.
Other guests included former Oriade LCDA chairman, Ramota Akinola-Hassan; chairman of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors in Mushin Local Government, E.O. Bamgboye; Oba Oloyede, the Oba of Onigbongbo; Oba Oluwasegun Ajasa; former Ojo Local Government chairman, Rasulu Idowu; and Vice Leader of the Apex Group of the Lagos4Lagos Movement, Alhaja Sofurat Abdulkareem.
Several local government and LCDA chairmen, as well as community leaders, also attended the event.
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