Crises brew in Ward A Ifelodun LCDA of Lagos State over who will represent the ward as a Councillor in the emerging Council. Some of the fourteen ward leaders have officially put up resistance against the candidate who emerged from the local government primary election that took place yesterday. The primary was held in all 37 LCDAs and 20 LGAs of Lagos State.
The primary, with 11 aspirants slugging it out, saw Hon Taorid Alao come tops with 14 votes, followed by Abiola Ojora, who came second with five votes, and Lawal Mutalib Oladele third with three votes.
Late Ogunbanjo’s son (name) had to step down on Friday night after the State leadership gave a stern warning to the APC, Ajeromi LCDA chairman Owegbe Babalola, not to cause confusion by supporting any candidate; rather, he should be neutral.
However, it was reported that Femi Otugbesan, another aspirant of the Ward who unfortunately fainted after hearing unpalatable news from his leadership, is still recuperating in the hospital. Otugbesan was said to have fainted after the leader declared that he was not willing to sponsor any other candidate from the Ward.
According to a terse text message response from one of the leaders of the ward, Engr. Tunde Omojuwa said the Ward has been reserved for a lady aspirant. “The State leadership of our party has mandated Ifelodun leaders to ensure that two female aspirants emerge out of the seven Councilors”, he revealed.
Obviously referring to a letter from the State Secretariat of the APC to all the LGA Chairmen instructing them to strictly comply with an instruction to consider at least two female Councillorship aspirants in their local governments.
Omojuwa said the Ward leadership had reached an agreement since an unqualified aspirant was pushed forward by some people who feel that they can impose a less credible candidate in place of others.
He further said the Ward is still trying to accommodate the unfair treatment meted out to another powerful aspirant whose name was omitted from the aspirants’ result list after the screening. Adding that after the screening, to the surprise of many constituents at the ward, the screening committee now pushed out an aspirant who is not credible.
However, calls and messages to the LGA Chairman, Owegbe Babalola was not reacted to but other leaders of the ward like the out going Ward Councillor, Hon Hassan Sulaiman confirmed hearing something about some people rejecting the person that emerged from the primary election but “that is not what I want to channel my energy to but all I had tried to do since three months ago was to seek for means to repay son of my late leader whom am very grateful for how he had supported me when he was alive, though this reaction does not mean am happy over the outcome of the primary election but it was circumstance that made us ask Laiti Ogunbanjo to step down especially as other leaders had spoken in that direction”.
The Ward Chairman, popularly called AZ, tiredly said, ” My brother, we had a successful primary and a winner emerged with fourteen clear votes and only two voided votes, and the runner up scored five votes.”
In another development, Ward G had an upturn when an incumbent Councillorship aspirant was defeated at the primary, and he was expected to return victorious for a second term, but a new aspirant, Jide Sarumi aka JAS, has been named the Councilor elect with a whooping 21 votes against the opponent’s five votes.
