Notable leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC have said the ruling party at the federal level, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will be shocked by its mass rejection by Nigerians in the 2015 elections.
The party leaders who spoke in Lagos weekend vowed that the imminent defeat of the PDP in the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections in June and August respectively would serve as a foretaste of what awaited PDP in the 2015 general elections.

The optimism

The APC boast followed series of strategy and assessment meetings on Saturday by some of the party chiefs under the banner of the Mandate Movement, TMM, founded by a frontline leader of the party and former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking at a reception organised by the Mandate Movement now led by a former Commissioner for Environment in Lagos and APC's National Legal Adviser, Dr Muiz Banire in his honour, the Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola who was weekend given Daily Independent newspapers' Man of the Year 2013 award, stated that "with the abysmal performance of PDP governments across the country and the result of our party's, APC, recent membership registration exercise, it is certain that we will shock PDP and uproot it totally from all tiers of government in the country in 2015."
The Osun governor who is also a founding leader of the Mandate Movement thanked the crowd from all the 57 local council areas of Lagos that gathered at the Skypower playground, GRA Ikeja for keeping faith with the APC through its various transformational stages since 1999.

Aregbesola
"I must thank you for standing by us all the way. You have seen that more Nigerians including serving and past governors, members of the National Assembly have been trooping to the APC because PDP has failed and disappointed the nation. What this tells us is that we put in more effort to flush out this party that has brought so much pain and anguish to our people. Our coming elections in Ekiti and Osun will surely give them ,PDP, a bitter taste of the peoples level of resentment for them", he added.
He thanked the organisers of the reception for remaining faithful to the ideals of the founder of the TMM which began as just a political group in Lagos.

Banire, Odumaki speak
In their welcome speeches at the occasion, Banire and another leader of the TMM, Cardinal James Odumaki who is the Deputy Chairman of APC in Lagos State, stated that the mass attendance of the programme by party faithful across the state is a strong warning to the PDP not only in Lagos or South West but all over the country.
"This is just a small reception put together within days for a few people to attend in honour of one of us, Ogbeni Aregbesola but the crowd that is gathered here is not only intimidating, overwhelming but encouraging. We assure you that our party is forming the next government at the federal level and we will never fail you as the PDP has done", Banire stated.

In attendance
Other chieftains of the APC at the reception were Alhaji Lai Mohammed, National Publicity Secretary; Dr. Leke Pitan, former Lagos Commissioner for Health; Deputy Governor, Osun State, Mrs. Grace Olaoye-Tomori; wife of the state governor, Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola; members of the National Assembly from Lagos as well as their counterparts at the State House of Assembly among several others.