• Political appointees accuse council chairmen of flouting directives on swearing in
• Urge Sanwo-Olu to wade in

A former Chairperson of Iba Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State, Ramotalai Oseni, has lamented the alleged imposition of candidates for political offices in the council.

In a petition dated April 12, 2022, and addressed to the state Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Cornelius Ojelabi, Oseni accused a former deputy governor of imposing strange persons as candidates in the council.

The petition, written by her lawyer, Yemi Omodele, said that the former deputy governor had hijacked important positions and imposed her nominees on the party to the detriment of other party members.

According to the petition, the said party chieftain has been sidelining the petitioner by bringing “strange faces that have contributed nothing to the party to occupy political offices, while the petitioner has not been given any slot for her supporters in the LCDA.”

IN another development, political appointees in Agbado/Oke-Odo LCDA, Ayobo/Ipaja LCDA, Alimosho Local Council, Egbe/Idimu LCDA, Ikotun/Igando LCDA and Mosan-Okunola LCDA have accused the council chairmen of flouting the directives of the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to inaugurate the newly-appointed supervisory councillors and special advisers.

The appointees alleged that Alimosho Local Council chairman refused to swear them in based on the sharing formula as agreed by two factions in the council. They claimed the 50:50 sharing formula does not favour the Enilobo faction, as it wants to have the highest slots.

The party chairman of Osin in Mosan-Okunola LCDA, Monsuru Akerele, said when they got to the council for the swearing in, they did not meet the Chairman, Olabisi Adebajo, who was expected to do the swearing in.

“There is no swearing-in in Mosan-Okunola as directed by the state government. This is unacceptable to us. Other governments have sworn in their supervisors and special advisers. When we got here, we could not find the chairman but later saw the leader of the house who told us that he has not received any information on the swearing-in from the chairman.

“We asked him to call the chairman to confirm but he called policemen. When the policemen came, we told them our side and they urged us to remain calm,” he said.

He alleged that there was a foul-play and that the original list signed by Lagos State government had been altered.

The Supervising counsellor in Mosan-Okunola LCDA, Hon. Omotayo Ojediran Emanuel said he heard of a list that was released on Friday and an ultimatum by the governor that the swearing-in should be done within 48 hours while other local governments already had theirs since Friday.

He appealed to the Lagos State Government to come to the aid of the appointees and sort out the issue amicably.

Prince Adeleke Adeyemi said he was surprised about the happenings, saying a directive has been given by the governor. but to my surprise when I came here this morning the Chairman was not around.

An appointee from Agbado\Oke Odo LCDA, Sola Popoola, said he is one of the two aspirants whose names were removed by the Council Chairman.

He alleged that two appointees that did not receive the invite were from Orelope fraction and alleged that it was done intentionally. The Enilolobo faction did not accept the fifty, fifty sharing formula and they are trying to manipulate the process, Popoola said.

The appointees from Alimosho LG, Mr. Opeyemi Orodele, said he learnt about the postponement when he got to the council for the inauguration.

Leader of the Legislative Arm Mosan-Okunola, Olasunkanmi Adefioye, said he is not aware of the swearing-in activity.

But the Vice Chairman of Mosan-Okunola, Dayo Osinowo, faulted the allegation that the chairman is trying to alter the list of the proposed list saying anybody that has an issue with the list should meet their leaders or take their grievances to Alausa, Ikeja.

The Vice-Chairman of Alimosho LGA, Akinpelu Johnson said he is not aware of what could have caused the postponement as the chairman of the council only asked him to address the appointees and informed them that the swearing-in has been postponed indefinitely.