Fifteen out of the 16 All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship aspirants in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, on Thursday, took to the streets to protest what they called “unacceptable imposition” of consensus chairmanship candidate on residents of the council for the poll.
The protest came barely 23 days to the conduct of the local government polls in the state by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC).
The aggrieved aspirants, including wife of Juju maestro, King Sunny Ade, Hon. Risikat Adegeye; Otunba Adebanjo Ayeni, Captain Adebayo Dosunmu, among others, during the rally rejected the decision to pick Comrade Valentine Braimoh, who the party said emerged as the consensus candidate in the area.
The protest started from the 11 Road to First Avenue through 41 Road, Festac Town and later terminated at the Local Government Secretariat on Third Avenue to meet with the Sole Administrator, Mr. Bamidele Oki, in company of policemen from the Area “E’ Command, who provided security as well as ensure that the rally was not hijacked by miscreants.
Speaking with newsmen, one of the aggrieved aspirants, Ayeni, said the protest became imperative in order to avoid APC losing the slots again to opposition parties in the election.
Ayeni said the protest had been successful from the all indications and protesters had been able to gain support of the electorate, insisting that the choice of Valentine as the consensus candidate in Amuwo Odofin, was unacceptable, undemocratic and injustice.
“We have all resolved that this will not stand until justice is done by the party leadership. If this matter is not addressed promptly, before the election of July 22, 2017, it portends grave danger for APC if they do not want to lose to opposition parties like that of the 2015 General Election,” he warned.
“Valentine has even failed to engage us (aggrieved aspirants) in a meeting on the way to resolve the crisis but rather prefers to approach the party leaders at the state level because he is not popular in Amuwo-odofin,” he said.
Also speaking, Dosumu said the party could pick anyone from among the 15 chairmanship aspirants but not Valentine who he contended had contributed nothing to the development of APC to represent the people of Amuwo Odofin.
“We have written several petitions to the party leadership, particularly, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, our well respected leader but we are still awaiting positive response from him,” he said.
It will be recalled that earlier reconciliatory efforts by APC leadership to resolve the lingering crisis as a result of the controversial primaries election to pick candidates for the forthcoming council polls hit the rock.
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