Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Lagos state governorship election, has suffered backlash from Nigerians over his comments on the Lagos Red Line Rail project.
Gbadebo, in a statement on Monday, condemned the governor of the state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for allegedly buying 11-year-old “abandoned” railcars for the Lagos State Red Line project.
While Gbadebo berated the Sanwo-Olu-led Lagos State government for allegedly deceiving Lagosians and the entire nation, he asserted that the administration of former Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluck in 2012 signed a contract with the Chinese to upgrade the rail line to a standard gauge railway from Lagos to Ibadan.
However, Gbadebo’s claims have attracted severe backlash from Nigerians.
Reacting to Gbadebo’s statement, Jubril A. Gawat alleged that the Labour Party Chieftain does not know the difference between a blue line rail and a red line rail.
Gawat said, “Man doesn’t know the difference between FG Stations (named after people) and Red Line Stations (named after the areas).
“The idea of kickstarting Red Line Rail started under former President Buhari’s 2nd term when Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu got in, and the groundbreaking was done on April 15, 2021.
“All compensations along the corridor are paid by the state government. NRC Ikeja staff quarters were demolished and rebuilt in Agege by the state government.
“You can show us evidence of Jonathan doing anything on the Red Line.”
Calling Gbadebo’s statement “shameless,” Ayo Akande noted that his claims that the railcars are old and abandoned are all lies.
“This is shameless. I don’t know about all of your story, but the part about it being purchased in Wisconsin 11 years ago is the lie of the century.
“I live in Florida and saw it on a news broadcast when Sanwo Olu came to purchase the trains two years ago. There are videos of it.
“The trains were built for Wisconsin, but the Republican governor at the time scrapped the project due to internal politics. You are a joke, and Lagos really dodged a bullet by rejecting you,” Akande stated.
In his reaction, King Bolu argued that the rail lines were first laid by the former minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
“The rail track that Amaechi laid is what we are now appropriating to GEJ? Come on, man, you can still shade Lagos APC with that project without having to lie.
“GEJ started and almost completed Abuja to Kaduna, which Amaechi completed before he started and completed Lagos to Ibadan,” Bolu noted.
Calling Gbadebo a lier, Oluwashola stated, “I have never seen a useless governorship aspirant like this dude.” Which Good Luck Jonathan has paid for the rail track since 2013?
“Even GEJ will be ashamed of you for bringing him into a subject he has no knowledge about.”
Buttressing Oluwashola’s claims, an X user simply identified as Talker stated that, “I now believe GVR is liar and is propaganda machinery; I know and monitored when Lagos-Ibadan rail lines were constructed by the Buhari government with the supervision of Mr. Rotimi Ameachi; $1.5 billion was borrowed from China Bank to fund the project; Osinbajo inaugurated it.”
