Lagos APC LG primaries end in fiasco

DELEGATES scampered for safety on Saturday at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, venue of the lacal government chairmanship primaries of the Lagos State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), which ended  in a fiasco.

The event was designed to pick candidates for the 57 Local Governments (LGs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) for the July council election.

Members of the party including their leaders, had to run for cover following violent protests by aggrieved delegates, which brought the event to an abrupt end.

The exercise had, from the beginning, been characterised by jubilation on one hand on the part of delegates that had their choice of candidates affirmed by voice votes and protests on the other hand by delegates who had vehemently rejected affirmation, but insisted that voting must be conducted to pick their chairmanship candidates.

While delegates from Local Governments (LGs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) like Lagos Island (East), Coker Aguda, Ifelodun, Onigbongbo, Iba, Igando Ikotun, among others, had affirmed their various candidates before the chairman of the APC Electoral Committee, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, their counterparts from Surulere, were the first to reject alleged imposition of candidates.

They insisted on going for an election and were later joined in their protest by delegates from Yaba, followed by those from Agege, who became more violent and started destroying ballot boxes and platforms on which they were mounted.

“We want to vote; we want to vote; we want to vote,” they chanted, as they made for the place, where ballot boxes were set.

They made long sticks from the destroyed platforms, which they started wielding and dared anybody to come near them, even as security men, including police, looked helpless.

The stadium soon become empty within seconds, as all those present, including party leaders, members of the Lagos State House of Assembly, delegates, and journalists ran for dear lives.

Earlier, the protests by delegates from Yaba LCDA had witnessed Senator Afikuyomi, who is chairman of the Electoral Committee, being manhandled, his white top torn and was nearly beaten if not for the intervention of the policemen and men of Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps (LNSC).

The aggrieved delegates, who refused all entreaties, but insisted on voting for candidates of their choice as next chairman of Yaba LCDA, later pulled down the iron fence that served as barricades.

In his opening remarks, the state APC chairman, Chief Henry Ajomale, who was accompanied by other members of the party’s state executive, chairman of the Electoral Committee, Senator Afikuyomi and others, assured that the venue was chosen to ensure the primary election was transparent and open in other to pick credible candidates.

He commended the Afikuyomi committee for the good work it had done in the last few weeks, expressing hope that the Saturday exercise would be a crowing glory.

“I want to praise the Senator Afikuyomi Committee for their patience and perseverance. Thank you for the successes we have recorded in the last few weeks. But the conclusion of the day’s exercise will crown the efforts,” he said.