"So because he has nothing to show for his four years in office, he had to excuse himself," the PDP candidate said.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Lagos, Abdulazeez 'Jandor' Adediran, on Tuesday, said that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu failed to attend The Platform Nigeria debate held on Sunday because "he has nothing to show for his four years in office".
Mr Adediran said Mr Sanwoolu's absence from the debate was planned to help him avoid answering critical questions bordering on the arrested development the state witnessed under his watch.
"If a governor of Lagos State who is supposed to be the chief security officer of the state is saying that 'I am not safe standing by a citizen of the state' for whatever reason, then that speaks volume of what the people of Lagos should expect," the Lagos State PDP governorship candidate said on Arise TV's programme Morning Show.
"He is telling all of us that we are not safe under his watch because even he is not safe in a closet where the debate is going to happen."
Mr Adediran remarked that before it eventually held on Sunday, the debate had been shifted about four times on the ground that Mr Sanwoolu cited various reasons for not attending.
"He was looking for something to ride on so that he won't be part of the debate," he said of Mr Sanwo-Olu.
"Because that debate he had shifted about four times saying he wanted to commission the two bus stop rail line. He wants Buhari to come and commission the deep sea port. What is your own with the deep sea port? We are just a landlord with some percentage and all that. So because he has nothing to show for his four years in office, he had to excuse himself."
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Sanwo-Olu's handlers had announced that the governor would not attend the debate. The decision came as a reaction to a viral video wherein some supporters of the opposition party unleashed mayhem on some residents of the state.
A video widely circulating on Sunday showed about twelve hooligans shooting in a Lagos neighbourhood, with one of them holding an axe. Part of it depicted a Toyota Sienna car appearing to be a campaign vehicle of the PDP governorship candidate driving into the street with one of the armed men opening a front door and shoving his bag inside.
"Following advice from competent sources, including elders and respectable Lagosians, we will henceforth shun any forum that may require us being together with PDP and its agents of violence," a statement issued on Saturday by the Lagos State Government said.
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But on Tuesday, Mr Adediran claimed that Mr Sanwo-Olu's absence was orchestrated to shield him from being questioned at the debate.
"If you want him to come to the debate, he will come and explain how he did a budget of N812 billion in 2020 with 120 per cent budget performance at the end of the year according to him. He will come and explain how he did a budget of N1.25 trillion in 2021 and how that recorded a performance of 85.7 per cent in that year," Mr Adediran said on the television programme.
"He will come and explain how he had a budget of 2022 of N1.758 trillion with a performance of 77.9 (per cent) in the second quarter of that year. Yet you still have a poverty rate from 4.5 per cent in 2019 when you took over and now 8.5 per cent today. You still have unemployment rate of 14.6 (per cent) when you took over and now 37.16. So he will have a lot to come and explain so he had to dodge the debate."
The PDP candidate went further to disclose that his running mate, Funke Akindele, was chased out of the market she went to campaign and speak to people by thugs.
He alleged that he had had a similar experience when he went to Oworonshoki, an area in the state, adding that the government is doing it "to scare us off the road."
Earlier in the month, during a rally in the Somolu Local Government Area of the state, Mr Adediran said he would run a government that will have the interest of ordinary people at heart and eradicate hooliganism and thuggery within the state.
