Tax Evasion! Your Lies Are Becoming Unbearable…Agbaje Tells Fashola

PDP Lagos governorship candidate,
Jimi Agbaje has asked Governor Fashola of Lagos to quit lying that he has gone
ahead to pay a sum of N500,000 taxation fee after, he, the governor cried out
about him evading taxes.  Agbaje says
there’s no iota of truth there; as his company never paid the said amount, and
as a matter of fact, he is still standing by the words he gave Lagosians when
the Governor first accused him. Here’s what he wrote on his Facebook page to
address the issue;

The Honourable Governor B.R. Fashola (SAN) has lied again
and I think it’s time to address his repeated blunder.

With regards to my taxes, there is no truth in this latest
piece of misinformation that the Honourable Governor has been peddling.
Following the repudiation of his initial allegations about JAYKAY
PHARMACEUTICALS unpaid taxes, he has lied again, giving the impression that my
company has gone to pay money supposedly owed to the government.

JAYKAY PHARMACEUTICALS has not paid a kobo since the day the
Honourable Governor launched his initial attack. We stick to the facts
contained in our initial publication, which encapsulated the company’s reaction
to the Governor’s initial falsehood. To now insinuate that I have gone behind
the curtains to pay N500,000 is clearly political silly season – for lack of a
better phrase – and quite frankly, beneath your person.

It’s understandable that we’ve both had our differences in
course of this election season, but when the Honorable Governor goes about
launching unbridled, flat-out-false attacks at me about something as important
as taxes, you leave me no choice but to call you out, Sir.

When I got into this race, I decided to make it about the
issues. My opponents? Not so much. They talked about me being inexperienced and
at some point they said I was “too old to govern” and we responded with BOLD
IDEAS intended to put Lagos on a new trajectory – one that is NOT based on
Jagaban’s tax-and-spend economics but on a framework that would radically push
us to new economic frontiers for some of the most under-developed regions in
the state like Epe and Ikorodu.

They ridiculed our ideas around government-enabled free wifi
hotspots across the city – an idea targeted at widening the reach of a world of
knowledge that the Internet offers to our young and aspiring populace –
especially in areas of low penetration. They called it bold ignorance and out
of touch with reality yet they went on to implement wifi Internet-enabled buses
a couple of weeks afterwards. As much as we’re glad that our BOLD IDEAS inspire
you as much as they do us, one must begin to question the seriousness of the
opposition in Lagos to make this election about the issues.

How ever you cut or dissect our success as a state over the
last 16-years, the fact is that Lagos in the Economic intelligence Unit (EIU)
is still ranked 137th out of 140 cities listed in the liveability index. This
means that if you take 140 cities worldwide where people consider good to live
in, Lagos is the fourth worst place to live in.

Apart from this, a World Bank survey shows that of the 36
states in Nigeria, Lagos is still the worst state in terms of the ease of
securing Building Permits. It is still on record too that the party the
Honourable Governor represents has delivered less than 5,000 housing units till
date. It is still on record that more students in Lagos fail WAEC than those
who pass.

Even when we consider corruption, we are aware that
Honourable Governor Fashola is yet to challenge anyone for corruption at the
state level. Or is he saying Lagos is 100 percent corruption-free? Yet he goes
about castigating the Federal Government. He should walk his talk and lead by
example – expose and prosecute high-ranking corrupt officials in his government
and the state civil service. The corruption in the Lekki Toll Plaza will be
made public in due cause.

Clearly, we still have a lot of work to do as a state but
the Honourable Governor Babatunde Fashola has set out to exploit the commanding
heights he occupies in the seat of government to bully us. And quite frankly,
we shall stand up to bullies.

I think what Lagosians should begin to ask is what is
driving the Honourable Governor Fashola’s violent outbursts? What has he got to
hide? Other than lay the facts bare to enable the public form an informed
opinion.

I refuse to be baited into his self-declared verbal warfare.
My politics and campaign will be issues-based and no roforofo badmouthing from
anyone, no matter how highly placed, will steer me away from development-based
politicking.

There are more pressing issues, more important conversations
to have and more problems to solve and the people of Lagos are wondering if
their leaders get it. The teachers, the students, the blacksmiths, the bankers,
the taxi-man, the small-business owners, they all hope that their leaders
understand that the outcome of this election and the future of this state is
bigger than any one personality or party. Whatever we do or commit to doing determines
whether they have food to put on their tables; whether they can own homes, pay
salaries or that their children get to attend schools of their choice. They
deserve better.

The people definitely deserve better.