Lagos APC primaries disrupted over ‘consensus candidates’
The much-awaited local government primaries of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Lagos State was brought to an abrupt end yesterday a clash broke out within the main bowl of Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere where the exercise was being held.
Trouble started when the party’s electoral chairman, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, began to announce “consensus” candidates already endorsed by the party to the disapproval of other aspirants.
Afikuyomi had earlier hinted that some 18 candidates had emerged through consensus arrangements. The 18 aspirants were former local government chairmen who had only spent one term in office, having emerged won the last local government election in 2012. It was gathered that they were promised by the party leaders to return for one more term each.
Whereas the announcement of names of the 18 initial “consensus” candidates was largely peaceful except in the cases of Surulere and Mainland LGAs where there were grumbles, the decision of the electoral committee to start announcing consensus candidates for the remaining 39 chairmanship seats led to chaos.
Although ballot boxes bearing the names of respective Local Governments (LGs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs), giving impression that the primaries would be conducted were still in place, Afikuyomi’s announcement of one Samisdeen Onanuga for Ikosi/Ejirin LCDA was met with stiff resistance by supporters of Deyinlu Wasiu and Fabayo Gbemisola, who were actually preparing for an election, Daily Trust on Sunday learnt.
The uproar generated was still on when two aspirants from Ayobo/Ipaja and their supporters besieged the stadium to celebrate their supposed victory of a primary that had not taken place.
In the ensuing melees, supporters of Adekunle Ademoye and AbdulGafar Oluwanisakin who opposed the announcement of Omolola RasheedEssien, as chairmanship candidates of Mainland LG marched towards the VIP section to register their displeasures.
They were joined by supporters of other aggrieved aspirants who charged at security operatives and pulled down the rails standing between them and the police.
The protesters further went for the ballot boxes and the plastic chairs and tables earlier set for the exercise. They smashed the tables, broke bottles and hauled them at the direction of party leaders seated at the VIP section of the stadium.
The party leaders including the state party chairman, Henry Ajomale, former Deputy Governor of the state and now Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Sustainable Development Goals, Adejoke Adefulire, former APC Kogi State Deputy Governorship candidate and member of House of Representatives, James Faleke, among other lawmakers had to scamper to safety through the emergency exit attached to the VIP section.
Sources said the APC National Leader and former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, alongside the state governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, were within the stadium premises but were yet to show up at the VIP pavilion when the crisis erupted.
Ajomale, had in his opening remarks appealed to the party delegates to exercise decorum in their conducts, saying some people had predicted that the primaries will end in chaos. He said the delegates owed it a duty to prove the violence prediction wrong.
Also, in an earlier interview with journalists before the chaos, Ajomale said the consensus arrangement was not an imposition but what the aspirants themselves willingly opted for.