Crisis is brewing within the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress ahead of the July 12 local government elections, as many chairmanship aspirants and party leaders have kicked against what they described as a plot to impose candidates.
The aggrieved members and leaders, drawn from various local government areas and local council development areas, accused key figures within the party of attempting to sideline grassroots democracy by handpicking candidates rather than allowing a level playing field.
The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission had, in April, released the timetable and guidelines for the commencement of the electoral process for the 57 council chairmanship seats and 376 councillorship positions spread across the state’s 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs.
The announcement came as the tenure of the current local council officials is set to end in July.
The reported that the party pushed for the adoption of consensus in selecting candidates for the party’s council primaries, scheduled for Saturday (today).
Following the party’s decision, Saturday gathered that party leaders in various LGAs set up internal committees to screen aspirants and streamline those to be adopted as consensus candidates.
However, the move has sparked outrage among some aspirants and party members, who allege that the process was being used to impose preferred candidates rather than allowing for fair competition.
The situation is said to have led to protests in some local councils, with party members alleging subversion of the democratic process.
In Ojokoro LCDA, a group of party leaders, under the auspices of Ojokoro Apex Council, reportedly screened three chairmanship aspirants, out of which one Mobolaji Sanusi, emerged as the consensus candidate.
Sanusi’s emergence was announced in a letter signed by former members of the House of Representatives, Ipoola Omisore and Adisa Owolabi, and addressed to the state APC chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi.
Attached to the letter was the signature page of the consensus resolution, showing the names of the party leaders and their signatures.
The signatories included the incumbent chairman of the LCDA, Idowu Tijani.
However, trouble started a few days later when one Rosiji Yemisi emerged as a chairmanship candidate from another screening conducted by a different group of party leaders.
A member of the group, who spoke with one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, accused the apex council of attempting to impose a “foreigner backed by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudasiru Obasa”, on them as their chairmanship candidate.
He warned that imposing an outsider with no electoral history in Ojokoro would have negative consequences.
Protests also erupted in Yaba LCDA over an alleged plot to impose one Babatunde Ojo as the chairmanship candidate of the party.
A coalition of concerned landlords, electorates, and political stakeholders in the LCDA raised the alarm over a plot to replace the name of the aspirant who emerged top during the screening exercise with that of Ojo.
Saturday news gathered that another aspirant, William Babatunde, scored 85 per cent to emerge top while Ojo polled 65 per cent and came 11th out of the 14 aspirants screened.
The coalition, led by Amoo Ismail, petitioned the First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, urging her and the President to intervene and prevent what they described as a repeat of past political imposition that hindered development in the area.
“It is important to emphasise that we have credible leaders within our community who are capable of selecting the most qualified candidate from the broad pool of aspirants. It is simply unjust and disheartening to the political stakeholders in the local government that a single individual continues to unilaterally impose a chairmanship candidate upon us.
“In light of this, we humbly implore Your Excellency, and His Excellency the President, to kindly intervene and consider alternative options that will better serve the interests of our community.
