Eniola Ajose
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| L-R: Agege APC Apex Leader, Chief Safari Adaranijo, Middle( Agege Council Chairman, Alhaji Ganiyu Egunjobi), R: Hon. Johnson Babatunde, Chairman Orile Agege |
The leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC Agege and Orile-Agege chapters in Lagos, have pushed back at claims that chairmanship and councillorship candidates of the party in their areas for the forthcoming council polls in the state scheduled for July 12, 2025 were imposed.
The party primaries for all 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas in respect of chairmanship and councillorship were held on Saturday, May 10, 2025 at the party’s state secretariat.
Based on delegate voting and consensus, not few of the results of the exercises released by the Election Committee chaired by Barrister Babatunde Ogala in which the party chairmanship candidates in all the councils expect Yaba LCDA and Mainland LCDA were named have been engulfed in controversies that border on alleged impositions and allegations that the election processes were flawed, skewed in favour of some aspirants and arranged to achieve predetermined ends.
Agege and Orile-Agege where Alhaji Tunde Azeez and Idowu Akinola emerged as the ruling party chairmanship candidates respectively have their own share of the imposition claim.
On Tuesday the leadership of the party in both councils after a meeting held at the Agege local government secretariat issued a communiqué with which they refuted the accusation.
Signatories to the communiqué are: Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashir Obasa, the lawmaker representing AGEGE 02 in the state House of Assembly, Alhaji Jubril Kareem, Member House of Reps, Hon Dr. Wale Ahmed, Special Adviser to the Governor, Hon. Afolabi Tajudeen, Commissioner for Establishment and Training, Hon Afolabi Ayantayo, APC APEX LEADER, Alhaji Safari Adaranijo, and First Executive Chairman AGEGE LG, Alhaji Genius Owolabi Dada.
Others are: Executive Chairman AGEGE LG, High Chief Ganiu Kola Egunjobi, Executive Chairman Orile-Agege LCDA, Hon Sunday Johnson Babatunde,
Chairman, LAHASCOM, Hon. Richard Akin Osungboye, Former APC Party chairman, Alhaji Ayoni Shittu, APC AGEGE LG Chairman, Alhaji Tunde Azeez, APC ORILE-AGEGE LG Chairman, Hon. Salau Olaniyi, Former council Chairman and former Member House of Assembly, Hon. Rotimi Adeshina, APC LEADER, Elder Sunday Ajide and Former House of Assembly member, Hon. Ashimiu Adebayo.
The leaders in their statement said those faulting the process that led to the emergence of APC candidates for the chairmanship and councillorship in all the 13 wards abandoned the party and the communities long ago.
"As far as we are concerned, the primary elections were free and fair; and suggestion by some elements that the candidates that emerged were imposed on them is misleading.
"Those making this false claims are sore losers; and for years ostracised themselves from APC and our communities.
"To put it in context, the likes of MD of Nigerian Railway Corporation, Kayode Opeifa, ex-House of Representatives member, Dr Samuel Adejare, and three-time House of Assembly member, Oluyinka Ogundimu are not involved in the activities of the party in both councils.
"In the same boat is Biodun Ogunji, a chairmanship aspirant in Agege who lives in the UK with his family but weeks back came down to Nigeria for the purpose of his aspiration.
"Same thing with his fellow-failed aspirant, Bukola Sofidiya, aka Gidado, a US-based Agege politician and Sola Osolana who was the chairmanship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Agege in the last council election in the state.
"It is a general knowledge that the leadership of the party in the state in their wisdom adopted consensus or delegate voting for the primaries with party local government excos as the voters.
"In Agege and Orile-Agege, excos members were constituted about four years ago when the aforementioned persons distanced themselves from the party in both council areas and its activities; as well as stayed away from our dear communities.
"In that context, it's only people with limited education and obscurity of positions that would consider themselves as contenders and not pretenders in the just concluded primaries," the Comminique partly read.
