Lagos LG polls: Apapa residents plan protest votes against APC over ‘anointed’ candidate

It is no longer news that the May 27th All Progressives Congress (APC) local government chairmanship primaries ended in chaos.  Aspirants and eyewitnesses alike reported that there was really no primary election.

According to them, what happened at the venue was, “a shameful imposition of certain aspirants whose names where read from a pre-determined list and who are wholly unpopular within their local governments.”

Supervised by the Chairman, APC Lagos State Electoral Committee, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, the primaries, they say, will seriously affect the fortunes of the party in Lagos.

An aggrieved aspirant who preferred anonymity said Apapa’s case is terrible. “Mr. Adele is a stooge of the immediate past chairman of Apapa Local Government. The said Adele is from Ijora Oloye in Ward E of Apapa Local Government Area but surreptitiously criss-crossed to Ward B to contest the election. Unfortunately for him, his dubious criss-crossing was not enough to earn him the people’s vote. He is largely unpopular. There has been so many petitions written against his aspiration to contest the chairmanship election, petitions which are testament to his unpopularity,” he said.

He added:  “In the 2015 general elections,  the APC lost some Federal House of Representative seats to the PDP in Ojo, Amuwo-Odofin and Ajeromi-Ifelodun councils due to protest votes by members of the party, who not only worked against their party but also voted against it as a result of imposition of unpopular candidates.

The APC risks seeing a similar feat playing out in Apapa if the party leader does not heed to popular demand and and allow a candidate who is widely popular and accepted by the people ahead the July 22nd Local Government elections.”