A fresh crisis is currently brewing in the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) after a chieftain of the party, Prince Idris Balogun, accused ‘loyalists’ of Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola of taking over the structure of the party in the Alimosho federal constituency.
Balogun in a letter dated July 27, 2021 to the APC Lagos Secretariat and National Leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, alleged that happenings in the political arena in constituency called for serious concerns and attention.
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Speaking on the crisis, he claimed a group of people in the guise of working for Aregbesola took over the affairs of the party, due to their closeness with the minister, who according to him had the ears of Tinubu.
Balogun alleged the centres have since then failed to hold after the emergence of the group tagged Alimosho G-18 (in charge of nominations of the Chairmen, Councillors, Assembly members both at the State and Federal).
“After the general elections in 2019 in which Alimosho displayed a total failure of votes cast, contrary to what we were known for, the National Leader of our great party publicly tagged Alimosho APC, a failure – the video is everywhere.
“This caused an immense embarrassment to us and many other party members felt it was time to redeem our political image, restore hope to the party members, give them the sense of belonging, compel our elected officials to use the money statutorily meant for the development of our community directly to them, and stop diverting public funds meant for development to service the so-called G-18 leaders,” he said in the letter obtained by SaharaReporters.
He further stated that his faction met with some stakeholders of the party in the state to address some of their grievances in the interest of the party.
“As part of our resolutions, the party agreed that there should be decentralisation of party leadership, freedom to contest elections, and independence of elected officials.
“Our efforts eventually paid off as the party leaders in their magnanimity agreed that the just concluded local government elections should be the launch pad for the settlement of our agitations.
“We heard that our National Leader (Tinubu) had instructed that all first-term Chairmen across the state should go back for their second terms. Hence we had to go back to the drawing board for another agreement, because one LGA and three LCDAs are beneficiaries of the new order.
“It was later agreed that Igando-Ikotun LCDA where the Chairman is completing her two-term tenure should be given to us while we have 14 Councillors, and 3 vice-chairmen, while we wait to get SLGs and Supervisory Councillors. But to our surprise again, we were shortchanged, as the number of Councillors given to us was reduced to 10. Our hopes of having the vice-chairman in Mosan-Okunola and Egbe-Idimu LCDAs were dashed again.
“It all started as a rumour to us, but it became a reality that, Hon. Ahmed Olajide Oseni’s name which was cleared for the 24th July election, after winning the election, has been substituted the night before the election. We did not find this laughable but highly provocative and insulting. Who authorised the changes? What does the law say about the changes of names and substitutions? Why are we in the dark about the changes? What were the parameters that warranted his substitution after the election?
“With utmost respect to the party (APC) National hierarchy, we write to express our displeasure on the political oppression, sidelining and imposition of undeserving candidate in person of Hon. Mutiu Adebiyi, the current vice Chairman of Egbe-Idimu LCDA against the party’s agreed candidate for vice-chairman, Hon. Lukman Idowu Ishola.
“Hon Idowu who had paid his dues politically and socially to be the second citizen of the council in the next administration and the youth have confirmed that Idimu and Isheri constituents have not been represented in the present administration because both the incumbent Chairman, Hon. Kunle Sanyaolu Olowoopejo and his vice, Hon Mutiu Adebiyi are from Egbe, which is just a fraction of the entire LCDA,” Balogun said.
(SaharaReporters)
