Some aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State on Friday stormed the party secretariat to protest against the planned substitution of the executive committee list produced at the last LGA Congress.
The aggrieved members, who earlier took their protest to Ifako-Ijaiye area where party elders and stakeholders from the Lagos West Senatorial District were holding a meeting, returned to the party secretariat at Acme Road and later stormed the Lagos State House of Assembly.
Leading the protesters, Chief Alakoso Fasesan-Ajanaku, an APC elder from the council area, said the reason they had to organise the peaceful protest was to intimate the party leadership of their grievances.
Fasesan-Ajanaku said that the group was interested in fostering unity in the party, hence the protest for the right thing to be done.
He said: “We are law-abiding citizens, we do not want to take the laws into our hands.
“We do not want violence or people going about expressing their displeasure in an unruly manner, that is why we are here to present our case to the leader of our party to help us settle it.”
In a petition submitted at the APC Secretariat, the House of Assembly and the Governors’ Office, the group alleged that there was a plan by the Oshodi-Isolo LGA chairman, Mr Kehinde Oloyede, to tinker with the authentic executive committee list.
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They alleged that there was a move to replace the APC LGA Chairman, Mr Wale Adelana, who merged at the congress, with Mr Saheed Animashaun.
The group also complained that the composition of the present LGA cabinet did not reflect the spread of the entire LGA structure, saying it was done without the input of party leaders in the council area.
They pleaded with the APC Chairman, Mr Cornelius Ojelabi, the House of Assembly and Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to ensure that the name of Adelana, who was submitted to the state chapter of the party, was not tampered with.
On the constitution of LGA cabinet members, especially the Office of the Secretary to the Local Government and supervisory councillors, the group urged the party leadership to ensure that the offices were shared among all the key leaders in the LGA.
They urged the party to ensure that the authentic list of party’s ward chairmen already inaugurated by Alhaji Tunde Balogun-led Caretaker Committee on Sept. 3, 2021, should remain.
Addressing the protesters, Ojelabi noted that he had not received any petition from the group, asking them to bring their case forward so the party could find a way of addressing their grievances.
“All of you are members of our party. It is normal in politics for us to have issues, we will resolve them,” Ojelabi said.
The chairman promised to hold a meeting with the leadership of the protesting group and the party officers being accused.
“You held a congress and the congress produced party officers. For me, I am working on the list handed over to me by the national secretariat in Abuja,” the chairman said.
At the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Victor Akande, the Chairman, House Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, Public Petition and LASIEC, commended the protesters for conducting themselves in a peaceful manner.
He promised that the house would look into their petition, take a decision and get back to them.