There has been confusion over who is flying the PDP flag in the forthcoming July Lagos State local government election in Ajeromi Ifelodun local government, following allegations and counter-allegations over the change of the name of the one who won the Party primary.
There has also been no clarification of an allegation and counter-allegation between PDP Lagos State chapter and PDP Ajeromi Ifelodun LGA chapter over who manipulated the name change, and now is the fear of their ability to rectify or restore the correct name before the LAISEC electoral guideline basement or timeline for parties to make name changes.
According to PDP sources, the name of the runner-up in the primary election was submitted to the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC, instead of the winner, even after the primary was generally believed to be free and fair.
However, LASIEC has washed its hands off any underhanded dealings, insisting that it only published the name submitted to it by PDP Lagos state. Investigation by Lagos Focus newspaper shows that the confusion emanated from the fact that both the state and Ajeromi-Ifelodun LGA submitted different names to LASIEC.
Some party members are worried that the parties involved in this chaotic scenario have kept quiet. Abogunde, the LGA chairman, Yussuf Ajiwe, the LGA secretary, and Marshall Udo, the state assistant PRO, are the three people from Ajeromi-Ifelodun responsible for submitting names to the state, but all of them have been silent on this matter.
“We all know and witnessed the process that Hon Okekunle Olawale pulled 23 votes while the second runner up Hon Kola Lawal scored 10 votes, but how come they subverted the will of the people? Lagos State PDP election committee directed us to ask you the following questions:
“Who submitted the second runner-up’s name as the party’s candidate to LAISEC is what we cannot say, and who are their witnesses? After several calls to the electoral umpire, we were told that the name that was pasted at LAISEC is the name that was submitted to them as the winner of the just concluded primary election.
“We warned about losing more PDP members in Ajeromi Ifelodun. We cautioned that PDP Ajeromi Ifelodun will never be destroyed from outside, if we lose our members at the election, it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within”, an aggrieved member said.
Pictorial evidence of the primary election has been submitted to LAISEC showing where the party chairman and other party chieftains raised the hands of the victorious candidate.
Another aggrieved member of the party reacted this way, “In the presence of God and man, we conducted an open primary for the chairmanship aspirants and the councilorship aspirants in Ajeromi Ifelodun LGA. The same primaries were observed by the recognized bodies in line with the electoral guidelines. The DSS, LASIEC, and PDP State Returning Officer were present, and Mr. Okekunle Olakunle emerged as the chairmanship candidate of Ajeromi Ifelodun LGA, having scored 23 votes, beating his closest rival, Mr Kola Lawal, who scored 10 votes “, he said
Another party member said, ”It will be against God and man for anyone to present anything different to the public and LASIEC. I will advise the person or people who did this nonsense to rectify it.
“To return the person who won the primary. The video and results of the primary election were sent, along with confirmations from LAISEC/PDP officials who witnessed the primary. Bode George and the state chairman contacted, so we are waiting for the winner to be confirmed”, he noted.
