A chairmanship aspirant in the recently held Local Government primary election in Agege under the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Bukola Sofidiya, has stated that stakeholders will not accept the imposition of candidates in Agege Local Government and Orile-Agege Local Council Development Area (LCDA). In this interview, Sofidiya alleged that there was clear manipulation of the electoral process. Excerpts:
Tell us your view about the recent Local Government primary election of the Lagos APC ?
The guideline from the party at the state level was very clear about how the primary would run. They said that they wanted all the local governments to come out with consensus candidates so that they won’t be any rancour or any issue. They wanted the leaders of the party to sit down and come out with consensus candidates and in a situation where they could not come up with consensus candidates, then the party would organise primary election for the local governments at the state party secretariat. In our own case, the party leaders ought to sit down and see if we could have consensus candidates. Our leaders such as Dr. Kayode Opeifa, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), Dr Babatunde Adejare, who was a two-term member of the Federal House of Representatives, Dr.Oluyinka Ogundimu, who was a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly for three terms and Speaker Mudashiru Obasa ought to sit down and agree on the candidates. They ought to harmonise things and pick consensus candidates from the list of those of us that obtained nomination forms from the party. But Speaker Obasa never gave them that opportunity. Instead of doing that, he took it upon it himself to organise the delegates and they are the people that he put into the party’s executive committee in Agege LG and Orile Agege LCDA. So, he was the one that forced them on us. The party now organised indirect primaries and he knew that he had the excos, which was why he did not speak with the leaders on the issue. When we got there, according to the guidelines, we supposed to come in with our agents as the votes are being casted, but they did not want this to happen. We had six other aspirants in Agege. The aspirant of the speaker is Tunde Azeez. The guidelines said that the aspirant could come in with one agent each, but in our own case, they said that it is either we the aspirants go in or our agents go in. But in other local governments, they could go in with their agents unlike what they told us in Agege. Some other aspirants sent in their agents, but I went in and I saw the way the primary was being done. They called in the delegates without the agents of the aspirants. The votes were casted and they came out with the ballot boxes. When they brought out the ballot boxes of Agege and Orile Agege, and they started counting the votes, they counted 24 valid votes for Agege and one invalid vote, making 25 votes. But all the ballot papers that were counted for Agege had one single handwriting and we are talking of 25 individuals.
What are you trying to say about the primary election as it affects Agege and Orile Agege?
What we are saying is that the results of the election had been predetermined, it was just a charade. Even before we obtained the nomination forms, Mr Speaker told everybody not to obtain forms in Agege as he said that he wanted his son to be the Chairman of Agege Local Government, but some of us went ahead to obtain the form. Thank God we did, because at the top echelon of the party they told the Speaker that his son could not be the chairman of the council. So, when we went for the screening, his son was absent because he had been told that he could not contest. Six of us were later screened at the party secretariat. So because of that he brought another aspirant through the backdoor. However, before we started the screening, sales of forms had closed, but the Speaker, in conjunction with some leaders got a form for Babatunde Azeez, who is the present Chairman of the APC in Agege Local Government. He is an executive member of the party. He got a form and he was screened after the sales of form had closed. That was the last time anybody saw him. As I am talking to you, that man is seriously sick. He is 64 years old and he is not lettered. I knew him from when I was a child. They had to arrange school certificate examination for him. He is not physically fit. They should bring him out for an interview if they think I am lying. He is on a sick bed as we speak. One man cannot hold Agege to ransom.
So, what is the way forward?
We have to go to the guidelines of the party for both Agege LG and Orile Agege LCDA. The leaders should sit down and come up with consensus candidates or we should go for a free and fair election that is devoid of manipulation and violence. That should be the way forward. We have better candidates in Agege and not Babatunde Azeez, he doesn’t even belong to Agege. I was born and raised in Agege and my people there know me. My family is very popular in Agege; my father was one of the first set of councilors there. I came from a family that has a pedigree of service to humanity. Why would you pick somebody that is not widely accepted to the people.
