Agege Local Government Chairmanship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Sola Osolana has appealed to the state chapter of the party to organise free and fair primary elections to shore up the image on the party not only in Agege Local Government but in the state as a whole.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, 2 June, 2021, Osolana said inability to organise a free and fair primary might negatively affect the fortunes of party not only in the coming council elections but also in 2023 general elections.
The aspirant said every party member knew that there was no primary election across the seven wards of Agege on Saturday, 29 May, 2021.
“It is evident that there was no election in Agege (last Saturday). The incumbent chairman with his thugs disrupted the polls by bringing in another local government register to different wards in Agege.
“We have evidences of all that happened.We want the leadership of the party to come and get involved. If there is no primary election, it will affect fortunes of the party (APC) in the general election. All I wanted is well-conducted primary election and security for our people; and availability of proper ward register,” he said.
He enjoined all supporters to be calm and continue to support his candidature.
Recall that suspected hoodlums (last Saturday) disrupted the primary elections in all the seven wards of Agege Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Meanwhile, it is gathered that all the chairmanship aspirants except the incumbent, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, have condemned the primaries in Agege.
In separate interviews, they told journalists in Lagos that electorate were chased from polling units and the whole process manipulated.
According to them, while some electorate were dispersed by hoodlums, other voters who insisted on voting were harassed.
Sola Osolana, a chairmanship aspirant, said: “In spite of the zeal and determination of people at the early hours to cast their vote, the exercise was disrupted by hoodlums.
“There was no primary election in Agege; actually people came out early in the morning to cast their votes but were later driven away by some sponsored hoodlums.
“The exercise was also manipulated as wrong accreditation sheets were presented and the electorate could not find their numbers and names on the sheets.
“The activities of the hoodlums affected all the seven wards across the local government.”
According to Osolana, the accreditation sheets should have been sent to and pasted at the different polling units to ensure easy process of the election.
Osolana said the hoodlums touched all the wards in the council from A-G to ensure election did not hold or was cancelled.
He said: “We appeal to the party leadership to shift the primaries to the State Secretariat of the APC, Acme in Lagos.
“It is very clear that some people want genuine change but few want to disrupt the change thereby manipulating the progress of the party.”
Prince Abiodun Ogunji, Vice Chairman, Agege Local Government Area, who is also an aspirant, decried the activities of the hoodlums during the primary election.
“There was no election in Agege. We want the election to be rescheduled with thorough supervisions from the leaders,” Ogunji said.
Nurudeen Sofidiya, also an aspirant vying for chairmanship position, decried activities of the suspected thugs.
Sofidiya said: “It is obvious that some people don’t want progress in the local government.
“We saw one of the leaders who came in with thugs as they discovered that the election will not favour them.
“We appeal to the leaders of our party to save us and conduct another primary election for us at the State Secretariat ACME Lagos for proper exercise.
“We want the election at the neutral ground where there will be no manipulations or violence against the electorate.”
Another aspirant, Sesanfunmi Adegbite, said the primary election was manipulated as the name of electorate were not properly captured in the accreditation sheets.
Adegbite said: “As far as I am concerned, there was no election in ward E.
“People were chased away from the venue, while other electorate decided to stay to cast their vote which resulted to chaos and violence.”
Alhaji Ganiyu Egunjobi, the present Chairman of the council who is also an aspirant, when contacted on phone for his comments, said he would call back.
