The Badagry Divisional Elders Forum parades political-conscious leaders who place great premium on enthronement of democratic ethos in the belief that an uninhibited political atmosphere is congenial for the institution of a sound democratic culture.
In this regard, we condemn any actions that make a mockery of minimal standards of democratic tenets that guarantee unfettered access to political offices. It is against this backdrop we are deeply concerned about the immoral conducts and actions of some members of Governor Advisory Council in Lagos State preparatory to the governorship primaries scheduled for Monday, 1st October 2018.
We see in the intrigues and subterfuges at the state secretariat a ploy to resort to arm twisting against the governor’s teeming supporters.
We also wish to inform Lagosians that the choice of the party secretariat for the endorsement of Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu by Governor Advisory Council, who is contesting the primaries against Gov. Ambode, is the height of indecency and an affront on supporters of our great party in Lagos.
We know for a fact that the grandstanding at the state secretariat on Saturday, 29th September 2018 was designed to deceive Lagosians into believing that the endorsement of Mr. Sanwo-Olu has the support of all party members in Lagos State.
We wish to state that this is far from being so. We are using this medium to inform our party faithfuls in Lagos to be wary of the antics of these hatchet men who are hatching all sorts of plots to unseat the governor.
While we believe that a keen contest for any position is healthy for our democracy, we make bold to affirm that, considering the show of shame on Saturday, 29th September 2018, we have lost our confidence in the ability of the Governor’s Advisory Council to ensure a free and fair election devoid of bias against Governor Ambode.
We also must alert the supporters of the governor to the aberration in the subterranean deployment of the state party’s machineries to cajole, corral and hamstring supporters of the governor to switch camp and cast their votes for Mr. Sanwo-Olu. Besides, asking Mr. Ambode to step down for Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu makes nonsense of the purported neutrality of the council which had earlier assured Lagosians that it does not support any of the candidates.
As events at the party’s secretariat on Saturday, 29th October 2018 demonstrate, the promise of neutrality is a veneer covering well-planned designs to make Mr. Sanwo-Olu emerge as the winner of the primaries. This shows clearly that the minimal requirements for a free and fair election are non- existent and we condemn this in the strongest possible terms.
In our views, the intrigues and underhand dealings preparatory to the governorship primary are not new, what is unprecedented in the history of party primaries in Nigeria is for all a group of disgruntled party supporters, who are acting on the orders of the upper echelons of the party, to hijack the party’s machineries, commandeer the resources of the secretariat in support of a co-contestant in a manner that brazenly confronts the governor. This is the height of party indiscipline, the kind that all well-meaning supporters of our party must condemn in the strongest terms.
The State Executive Committee of the party does not have any power to procure a gubernatorial ticket for any candidate. In fact, the directive of the National Executive Committee of the party that Lagos State and some other states should adopt direct primaries to pick their governorship candidates has already divested any state Executive party of such power.
Considering the overt bias of the GAC and the State Executive Committee in the matters of the primaries, and in the overall interest of peace and party discipline in the All Progressive Party in Lagos State, we call on the National Working Committee to, without delay, suspend the current state Executive Committee for evident bias and partisanship in flagrant disregard of party guidelines. The allegation against the State Executive Committee is that State Secretary, Dr. Wale Ahmed on behalf of State Executive Committee invited our members to party secretariat and used the occasion to endorse the Sanwoolu as the choice of party for Governorship of Lagos State.
We reject the endorsement and the purported choice. It is against popular decision of our faithful members to support Gov Ambode for 2nd term in office. We stand with the popular decision. Our decision to express our support for His Excellency Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode is in consideration of his uncommon equanimity in the face of brazen confrontation against his person and office as governor of Lagos State. In the light of the foregoing, the Badagry Divisional Elders Forum wish to reiterate our unalloyed support for Governor Akinwunmi Ambode as we pledge our unflinching readiness to work for the actualisation of his second term as governor. We wish to reiterate that we are with the governor every step of the way through this difficult time.
It must be pointed out it is the turn of Badagry Division to produce Governor after Gov. Ambode, who is from Epe Division by the existing zoning arrangement. Bringing Sanwoolu into picture is to distort the generally acceptable zoning arrangement. We condemn it in totality.
We insist that the zoning must stand and Epe Division represented by Gov Ambode must be allowed to adequately benefit from the zoning.
Signed
Chief Monday Whenu – Badagry Local Government
Prince Temitope Omotoba – Ojo Local Government
Mr. Yinka Akanni – Amuwo Odofin Local Government
Chief Amosu Adekunle – Ajeromi Ifelodun Local Government
