The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has chosen a trained teacher and an accountant, Alhaja Safurat Olayinka Abdulkarim, to run with Mr. Jimi Agbaje, its Governorship Candidate in the 2015 race for Lagos State.
A staunch Muslim, who had been Running Mate to Late Engineer Funso Williams (PDP Governorship Candidate for Lagos in 2003), Safurat is the wife of a retired Air Force officer and holds an MBA.
In a press statement yesterday (Saturday) by Agbaje’s Media Director, FELIX OBOAGWINA, Mrs. Abdulkarim said she would complement her principal, and assist in ushering into Lagos a refreshing atmosphere, devoid of state-brewed intimidation and human rights abuses.
It is a second coming for Safurat Abdulkarim, who in 2003 had been Running Mate to the Late Engineer Funsho Williams, a PDP Lagos Governorship Candidate, mysteriously assassinated later in 2006.
“I feel humbled about being chosen for this noble responsibility,” she said of her pairing with the PDP Governorship Candidate. “Mr. Jimi Agbaje is an amiable personality. He is a complete gentleman. I hope I can really, really complement him and assist him in winning the 2015 election because Lagosians strongly desire a change in government.”
Describing PDP’s chances in the governorship polls as very bright, the Deputy Governorship Candidate said she and Agbaje were entering the race at a time when Lagosians wanted to break the shackles of subjugation that had held them bound for 16 years.
“Our chances are very bright. Everybody is tired of the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has demonstrated much impunity. Citizens want a change in government. They want personalities who can bring positive programmes to their lives. We want to usher into Lagos a better way of governance, devoid of coercion and intimidation and harassment, characteristics that earmark the current administration.”
With a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Ado-Ekiti in 2007, Safurat began her educational life in Ansar-ud-Deen Primary School, Badagry, Lagos, between 1966 and 1972.
From 1975 to 1980, she attended Government Teachers’ College, Badagry, where she obtained a Teacher’s Grade II Certificate.
She thereafter proceeded to the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, from 1985 to 1987 for an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in Accounting, followed by a Higher National Diploma (HND) from the Kano State Polytechnic (1990).
In 2006, she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Financial Management from the University of Ado-Ekiti.
Starting out in her career as an Accounting Officer with Bintu Binta Trading Company, Kano, in 1987, Mrs. Abdulkarim later returned to the South-West, where she rose to become the General Manager of the Ikeja, Lagos-based Disk Engineering Limited (1990 to 1996), and thereafter Managing Director of Transmit Network (1996 to 1999).
Born 23rd June 1961 to the Muslim family of Mr. Abdulmananu Mofolorunsho Layode and Mrs. Risikat Ayinke Layode, Safurat has her roots in the indigenous Egun and Awori extractions of Lagos.
Her father hailed from Layode compound in Awhonjigoh Quarters, Badagry, while her mother came from the famous Akibon family, a lineage of warriors from Akogun Compound in Iba Town, in present day Ojo Local Government.
Between 1998 and 1999, this staunch member of the Nasrul-Lahi-l-Fatih Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) was appointed Vice Chairman and Supervisory Councillor in the Caretaker Committee of Badagry Local Government.
Safurat is married to Wing-Commander Bala Abdulkarim (Rtd), with whom she has children.
