By Sunday Ani, Lagos
Ahead of Saturday’s local government elections in Lagos State, members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Somolu Local Government Area have threatened to use all available legal means to prevent the election from holding in the area.
This was contained in a letter addressed to the National Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the party and Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni, and made available to the Daily Sun.
Dated July 14, the letter titled “All Progressives Congress, Somolu Local Government Area of Lagos State, sitting on a keg of gunpowder” was jointly signed by Primate Abraham Okunleye Joshua and Yomi Fakoya.
The ruling party in Somolu local council has been embroiled in controversies since after the conduct of its primaries, which members claimed never held in the area but ended up producing a candidate in the person of Mr Abdul Hammed Salawu, who is the incumbent Chairman of the council.
The letter stated that following the failure of the state chapter of the party to resolve the lingering crisis, it was imperative to inform the parent body and to let it know that if the prevailing trend of fraud and corruption was not arrested urgently, the party would be dead in the local government by 2023.
On what led to the crisis, they said: ‘In compliance with the directive of the party, leaders of our party in Somolu Local Government, advised the five aspirants contesting for the office of the Council Chairman, which included the incumbent, to meet and agree on a consensus candidate for the election.
‘In the process, four out of the five aspirants agreed to support Olubowale Sosimi, the incumbent Vice Chairman, who incidentally lost the chairmanship ticket to the incumbent Chairman in a shady manner only 72 hours to the Local Government election in 2017 and with a promise to get the party’s ticket at the next local government election.
‘With these arrangements, the contest became narrowed down to the incumbent Chairman and his Vice Chairman, who has the support of not only the party leaders and members but also that of the majority of the voting populace in Somolu Local Government.’
They alleged that on the day of the primaries, voting materials and personnel that were supposed to be taken to the party’s secretariat in Somolu for distribution to the various wards, were hijacked and diverted to the Council Secretariat.
‘However, what initially started as a ‘wicked rumour’, eventually turned out to be a reality. The incumbent Chairman had been declared the “winner” of a contest that was never held and was not even monitored by the election umpire, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission. All legitimate means of making the State Executive of our great party see reasons and right the wrong have proved abortive.
‘Out of passion and respect for the leadership of our great party, we decided to honour the invitation of the committee and state our case, even when we were almost sure from the prevailing atmosphere at the sitting of the committee that nothing good was forthcoming, we decided in the utmost interest of our great party, to shift grounds and make some concessions. In the proposals that we submitted, we proposed that the positions be shared into two equal parts except that the group that has the Vice Chairman would have the Secretary of the Local Government to its own.
‘To our chagrin, in spite of all our peace initiatives, the State Executive of our great party craftily deceived us by launching the peace committee to waste time as the election draws close and taking us for fools by not only insisting that the incumbent Chairman must be returned for an unmerited second term with an unknown person as the vice chairmanship candidate that did not even purchase the party’s nomination form and the entire councillorship aspirants of the incumbent chairman’s group.’
They urged the Buni-led Committee to call the State Executive to order by prevailing on it to do the wishes of the majority of not only the party members but also that of the populace in Somolu.
They also demanded the disqualification of the incumbent chairman, who they claimed is unpopular.
‘Declare Olubowale Sosimi from whom the chairmanship ticket was snatched in 2017 with a promise to have the ticket back at the next local government election as the candidate and flag bearer for the forthcoming local government election in Somolu Local Government Area.
‘Share the other slots (Councillors, Supervisory Councillors and Special Advisers) equally between the two factions,’ they demanded.
They, however, threatened that if their demands were not met, they would employ all available legitimate means to stop the election of Saturday, July 24, from holding in Somolu.