For some weeks now, the Lagos political scene has been seized by turmoil ahead of the July 22, 2017 local government election as contestants for chairmanship and councillorship seats alongside their teeming supporters have not allowed party leadership a breathing space. Turmoil has taken over the scene following relentless accusation of imposition of candidates against the godfathers and party chiefs in the different constituencies across the state.
The crisis that engulfed the process snowballed during the primaries of the All Progressives Congress(APC) held at the popular Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere. Violence took the central stage of that arena as the exercise ended abruptly following the violent protests by aggrieved members who felt that they were cheated as they were not given the opportunity to freely elect their popular choice at the venue.
Infact, the chairman, electoral committee of the party, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, was almost stripped naked as he was attacked physically by irate party delegates and his situation would have been much worse if he had not been rescued by security men who were at the venue to guarantee law, order and peaceful conduct.
Trouble started when delegates from Surulere, Yaba, Mushin and Agege protested of alleged imposition of chairmanship candidates on them by Afikuyomi, whose committee had come to the venue to only affirm candidates who were already on the list, while refusing to bow to affected delegates’ wish that voting be conducted to allow them the opportunity to choose their proffered candidates.
Not satisfied with the outcome of what not a few members of the party had come to see as kangaroo primaries, aggrieved contestants and their supporters have since been engaged in one form of action or another to express their grievances.
In extreme cases, violence had erupted in Shogunle area of the state, leading to the murder of the leader of the Motorcycle Operators’ Association of Lagos State (MOALS) in Oshodi, Alhaji Rasaq Bello popularly known as “Hamburger.” He was said to have been killed by a rival union and two supporters of one of the aspirants in Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area in a reprisal attack. The clash has since led the state government to placing an indefinite ban on the activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the area with enforcement units deplored to enforce the ban.
In Amuwo-Odofin, it was a different kettle of fish as irate youths stormed the local government secretariat in the area and burnt some sections of the building to protest what they termed “imposition” of an unpopular candidate over party members in the area.
Notwithstanding all these, aggrieved party men and women in their thousands have turned the APC Secretariat on ACME Road, Ikeja to their second home to express their grievances. They have been calling on the party leaders to listen to them and reverse the verdict of Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi- led primary committee in order to allow the wish of the people to prevail. These protests have continued even as the Appeal Committee headed by former deputy governor, Alhaji Rafiu Ogunleye, has continued to wade through a long list of petitions from aggrieved contestants. Committee members and staff of the secretariat were being held hostage almost on a daily basis as the protests last. It has taken the timely intervention of men of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), who have been permanently stationed at the gate of the party office to restore normalcy.
For instance, protesters from both Ajeromi- Ifelodun and Oriade Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of the state, had come penultimate Wednesday holding placards with inscriptions such as: “The charlatan leader of Ajeromi must go,” “APC leader, let the choice of people count in Oriade,” “We are not happy with Afikuyomi,” “We want primary at Oriade, “We don’t want Ayeola in Ajeromi- Ifelodun.”
Led by Comrade Peter Aga and Comrade Omosona Olakunle, the protesters demanded that the party must allow a level- playing field by calling for a free and fair primary where people’s choice would emerge.
Speaking with newsmen on behalf of protesters from Ajeromi- Ifelodun LCDA, Comrade Aga, said they had to embark on the protest in order to register their grievances on the way and manner one Ayoola Fatai Adekunle was allegedly imposed on party members as the chairmanship candidate by an APC leader in the area.
Aga, who said Ajeromi- Ifelodun consisted of two parts, namely Ajeromi and Ajegunle side, lamented that past candidates and office- holders, including current ones had always emerged from Ajeromi.
He, who insisted that the practice must stop and declared that it was now the turn of Ifelodun, consisted of Ajegunle to produce the chairmanship candidate. He said: “If Baba Oluwa is sure of his candidate, Ayoola Fatai Adekunle, let him bring him to the field to contest the primary.”
Speaking on behalf of protesters from Oriade, Comrade Olakunle said the protest was against the imposition of a former member of Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Ramatalai Akinola Hassan as the local government chairmanship candidate, recalling that the same former lawmaker was imposed in 2011 and 2015 as against another party member, Wale Raufu.
He contended that such impunity led the APC to lose the seat to the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015 election.
Indication that the Lagos State chapter of APC would be having this sort of crisis emerged early May when the party held a stakeholders meeting at its secretariat. At that meeting, attended by APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Tinubu urged members to work round the clock to ensure that the party wins all chairmanship and councillorship seats in the 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the forthcoming election.
He recalled how former President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP moved to take over Lagos State by all means in 2015, adding that APC members resolutely stood their ground and ensured the victory for the party.
He admonished party leaders to stick to earlier agreed arrangement of allowing 18 immediate past council chairmen to have automatic tickets to contest their various seats.
According to the APC National Leader, the affected former council bosses were promised automatic ticket for their efforts in the party and the state, while the Sole Administrators who took over from Executive Secretaries (ES) of the various LGs and LCDAs would not be allowed to contest in the election.
It was apparent that the decision did not actually go down well with some aspirants who complained that they had already spent huge amount of fund in realizing their ambition. Perhaps as a way of ensuring peace, Tinubu had to announce that those who picked forms in the affected council areas should be allowed to collect their nomination fees back. But the aspirants saw another danger in that: those who do such might later find out that they stand to also lose out in case there is any appointive position available in the councils.
But a party member, who happened to have shown an interest in contesting in one of the councils said that nothing is wrong in the whole process. He said that the party’s constitution clearly allowed a consensus arrangement to be adopted in selecting candidates for the election. He said that some of those protesting the development had been beneficiaries of the method in the past.
Just like many other councils, APC members in Agbado-Oke Odo LCDA took their protests to the doorsteps of the state chairman of the party, Henry Ajomale where they complained about the choice of who represents them in the councillorship poll from Ward G in the area. They accused the State Commissioner for Youths and Social Development, Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, of trying to impose her choice candidate on the ward.
The petitions did not end at the level of the councils. A group, Asiwaju Progressive Movement (APM) submitted a petition to Governor Ambode against the State Chairman of APC, Otunba Ajomale in which it was alleged that he was not fair in handling the process.
The group led by Arinola Gbadebo accused Ajomale of trying to impose one Dr Olatunde Olusunmade, his anointed aspirant as APC chairmanship candidate for Ejigbo LCDA.
The group also urged Governor Ambode to warn his Special Adviser on Communications and Community Development, Honurable Kehinde Bamigbetan, not to meddle in Ejigbo elections. They alleged that Bamigbetan had positioned people to protest against any consensus candidate that did not emerge from his group, Mandate 2.
Party Chairman, Ajomale, however denied the imposition allegation, adding that imposition cannot take place in a primary exercise held in the open.
Now that the Chairman, Electoral Committee of APC, Senator Afikuyomi, has announced that the party had submitted final list of chairmanship and councillorship candidates to the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), would there be any remedy for the aggrieved? If there is no remedy, would there be protest votes against the APC? How will the main opposition party the PDP benefit from the unfolding events in view of its endless internal squabbles? Will the APC come out of all these unscathed?
and then