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Reveals Why He Dumped PDP For APC
Without a doubt, Hon. Aro Moshood Abiodun is definitely one of the most vibrant lawmakers at the Lagos House of Assembly right now. He is young, he is brilliant, he is full of energy. And beyond and above all these, he has an exceedingly strong passion to serve his people. All he desires, long before he became a Lawmaker, is to help his Ikorodu people improve their standard of living by empowering them and providing for them some of the basic things they need to be able to sustain their businesses or actualising their academic goals and aspirations.
Even before he ventured into politics, as a rich, successful wood merchant, Hon. Aro Moshood Abiodun popularly called AMA, had been supporting thousands of Ikorodu indigents in various ways. Both men and women, old and young, have benefitted from his large heart. Little wonder the people often say, “See AMA and smile,” anytime they set eyes on him, because they know he will solve a large chunk of their problems by the time they take their leave. Today, Hon. Aro Moshood Abiodun is now the lawmaker representing Ikorodu constituency II and he is poised to do a lot more for his than he has done before.
But it wasn’t a walk in the park for the Ikorodu born politician. He had been with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for many years before crossing over to the APC. It was under the PDP platform that he contested for Councilorship and House of Assembly. He lost out on both occassions. It was a pretty rough experience for him.
“I got the ticket on the PDP platform and we started campaigning vigorously. When the elections came and results started coming in, I had won five out of seven polling units. We were already dancing and celebrating. But there was still one polling unit called Aiyetoro, its results had not come in and some people were saying, AMA, hold on oh, they have not brought Aiyetoro’s results. I said forget Aiyetoro, that place tht is ontop of water, how many people are there, how many votes will they get from that place? By the time they brought Aiyetoro votes, everywhere scattered! They came with over 400 votes and I was leading with jut over 100 hundred votes. I felt so bad. For more than three days, I cried. People had already started calling me Councillor. I felt so bad I left the community for like six months just to hide my face from the shame of defeat.”
His experience at the attempt to vie for the Lagos Assembly seat was no better. The PDP literally pulled out of the race at the last minute and he had sunk a lot of money into the campaigns leading to the election. This shattered him even more than the first loss at the councilorship election.
Jimi Agbaje, the PDP gubernatorial candidate, had broken the news to them that the party was not rteady for the elections. He said most of the candidates barely campaigned but were only waiting for 6the money windfall from the party. AMA was dazed by this shocking news. Hear him: “I grabbed Jimi Agbaje by the cloth and the security guys held me back. He said, AMA, whats wrong witrh you? I said, do you have any idea how much money I have spent on campaigning for this election thst you’re now saying the party is not ready for? I told him the money you want to give me is not even up to what I have spen. And you could’ve informed me before now that the election won’t hold instead of allowing me waste of money. Jimi Agbaje said, AMA, you are still young, what do you know about politics? I was shattered. I cried bitterly. The N1million he gave me, I just started sharing it on the road to people, policemen, people whjo recognised me in the car, I started giving out the money to them. They were all excited, hailing me, calling my name, but they didn’t know what I was going through at that time. Even my team who were with me in the car thought I was mad the way I was giving out money angrily. I shared all the money before I returned to Ikorodu. I wept that night.”
It was at this time that AMA gave up totally on politics. He made up his mind that politics was not for him and that he had to put a stop to the investments he was putting into actualising his political aspirations. Sop, how did he now end up with the APC, we asked him?
“The funny thing is that I did not plan to join the APC. I did not even make any move to contest for the House of Assembly seat and I did not make any attempt to join APC. As far as I was concerned, I had made up my mind I would not do politics again. But APC would call me for events and I would join them. Then, people started saying I had joined APC because I wasn’t doing anything with the PDP. One of the APC chairmanship candidates then is like a senior brother to me and during the campaigns, I did souvenirs for him and that fueled more the speculation that I had joined APC. And I also gave him. Now, Ikorodu Constituency II is on a rotation arrangement as far as these elections are concerned. My mum is from Imota. So, in 2018, 2019, I contested from Imota as an indigene of Imota under PDP. Now, in 2023, it was the urn of Ijede. But the man I contested with in 2019 now said he wants to contest again and it’s the turn of Ijede. The kings, the elders, all of them said, but its our turn now. They now told them, its your turn but its not what you will be saying with mouth, go and bring your candidate and they were like fifteen that came out. They told them, look, you have lost the election already, out of these people, who will you take to Gbogbo that they will recognise? They said none. Who will you take to Imota that they will recognise, they said none. They said then, you’re not ready. One oif them now said, you better go and meet AMA, he is the ony one you will take to Gbogbo, or Imota, or Ijede and people will say, yes, we know him, he has done something. So, that was how the chiefs came to persuade me, then the leaders of the party too came and I was like, okay, let me give it a try, perhps this has the hand of God in it. And, like they say, the rest is history. I have not had any single regret ever since.”
But everyone agrees that Hon. Aro Moshood, Abiodun has done exceedingly well. His philanthropy and empowerment programmes specifically designed for the people speak for him. He has shown an incredible desire to help improve the well being of those around him. He has supported parents by helping to pay their children’s school fees. He supports market women by giving them money to beef up their capital and even helped those who desired to travel outside the country procure their traveling tickets.
– WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
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