Dissatisfied with the outcome of the All Progressives Congress (APC) local government primaries in Lagos State, some party members thronged out in the numbers to protest what they view as glaring injustice and brazen imposition of candidates.
The party’s primaries conducted on May 10 were aimed at producing candidates that will contest the chairmanships and councillorship seats in the upcoming July 12 local government elections in the state.
The situation is compounded by the fact that the Appeal Committee of the party has remained silent its reports after receiving over 100 petitions from various chairmanship and councillorship candidates.
The committee which was supposed to conclude its work last week and dish out its report, based on the the information supplied by the party’s spokesperson in the state, Chief Oluseye Oladejo, has remained mute since then.
Irate party members in the Lagos Mainland Local Government Area and Yaba Local Council Development Area took to the streets of Lagos on Tuesday to protest the alleged injustice.
A good number of members in the Agege and Orile Agege areas of the state also trouped out to register their discontentment to the outcome of the APC LG primaries in their constituencies.
A protester, Thaorid Owolabi, decried that, “Despite the appeal panel recommending that no candidate emerged in Lagos Mainland and Yaba, they want to conceal the report and refuse to implement it. But the truth is clear, and we will stand by the truth with all legal means.”
Another protester, Joke Adebanjo, also claimed that some party leaders “want to impose candidates without primaries, without our voice?”
“This is not democracy, this is an insult to the people of Mainland Local Government! We demand a free and fair process, we demand accountability, and we demand leaders who truly serve us, not just themselves!”
In a similar development, aspirants also came out to protest what they describe as brazen disregard to electoral guidelines and deviation from the promise made at the Appeal Panel.
Another member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of being chastised by the party, said, “We were all told that leaders would emerge either through consensus or indirect election. In Lagos Mainland and Yaba, we don’t have any ward executives because of an ongoing legal case. Thus, we should only have consensus among aspirants if indirect election isn’t possible, but some impostors sent names to the electoral committee and state excos without the aspirants’ consent or election. Yet, the party went ahead to announce those people as winners and candidates.”
In a broadcast note shared, a female aspirant in Lagos Mainland, Kafayat Akinpelu, bemoaned the exclusion and ostracism female candidates suffered in the electoral process.
She stated, “As the sole female aspirant among 31 for the Executive Chairman position in Lagos Mainland and Yaba LCDA, I’m seeking justice and advocating for women’s inclusion, aligning with our party’s directive.”
In Agege and Orile Agege, the spokesperson for the Presidential Campaign Council, a factional APC group in the areas, Adetunji Akinyemi, said they were not just there to make noise but to proffer a solution.
“These people have moved out this morning. Over 2000 signatures were generated this morning against imposition. What we are saying is that the only lasting solution to political crises in Orile Agege and Agege is for our leaders to come together and agree on a consensus candidate,” Akinyemi said.
“What we are saying is very simple – they should allow our leaders to sit down together and agree on a consensus candidate, that is the only way justice can be reflected in Agege and Orile Agege.”
