In the run-up to the state’s upcoming local government elections, a subset of APC members in Lagos’ Eti-Osa East Local Council Development Area (LCDA) have urged President Bola Tinubu to form a panel to investigate alleged injustices experienced by certain candidates in the recently concluded party primaries for chairmanship and councillorship positions.
The primaries, which took place at the party’s state secretariat on Acme Road, have caused protests in many sections of Lagos as party members have expressed discontent with the way the process was conducted and the results.
Party officials and election committee members were accused by protesters of manipulating the process to unfairly exclude other candidates in favor of hand-picked candidates.
A group known as Concerned APC Stakeholders in Eti-Osa East LCDA encouraged Tinubu to step in and form an inquiry panel in an open letter to the president that was made available to reporters on Thursday.
The organization is calling for an inquiry into the purported “electoral fraud” and “impunity” that they say tainted the primaries in order to right the perceived wrongs and restore internal party democracy.
A lot of candidates are upset about the primaries’ conclusion, not because they lost fairly but rather because the public’s will was undermined and the process was tainted. What was meant to be a democratic exercise in several local government areas throughout the state—most obviously in Eti-Osa East LCDA—became a planned display of partiality, dishonesty, and betrayal of our party’s core values.
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One particularly unsettling instance is the case of Hon. John Campos Ogundare, the current Chairman of the Eti-Osa East LCDA. In a very undemocratic way, he was denied the party’s chairmanship ticket in spite of his outstanding performance and the evident changes that were made under his direction, such as the restoration of security, environmental reforms, youth empowerment, and improved cooperation between the party and the government.
It is known that during the first six months of his tenure, Hon. Campos Ogundare took on the LCDA’s security issues head-on, restoring calm and tranquility to a region that had previously been rife with instability and dread.
Developmental progress has been evident, and citizens continue to support his people-centered initiatives. Thus, it is not only unreasonable but also unfair for leaders who are self-centered and insensitive to deny such a man the chance to carry on his good deeds after he has established trust and collaboration.
In the cited correspondence, “A Call for Presidential Intervention In The Crisis Rocking APC In Lagos Arising from Electoral Malpractices & Injustice That Marred the just-concluded primaries of the party in The State for Forthcoming LG Elections,” the APC stakeholders stated that the party could not afford the internal conflict caused by the primaries, particularly in Eti-Osa, where the party lost the area’s Federal Constituency to the Labour Party in the general election of 2023.
The APC in Eti-Osa East is splintered as we type this, sir, and the majority of the decent members of the LCDA are angry over the injustice done to the council’s _performing_ Executive Chairman, who is the electorate’s favorite and is revolutionizing administration in the neighborhood where you live.
The letter went on to say, “Mr. President, you would be doing no good if you let this injustice continue, since the electoral fraud is so contrary to your commitment to justice and equity.”
