APC Chieftain approaches party leaders over crisis in Alimosho

The chieftain of the All-Progressive Congress, (APC) in Alimosho Federal Constituency of Lagos State has called for urgent intervention over the crisis lingering in the area.

The chieftain, Prince Idris Balogun, who advised in a letter written to APC Lagos Secretariat and the party National Leader Bola Tinubu respectively.

In the letter dated July 27, 2021, Hon Balogun said the happenings in the political arena in Alimosho call for serious concerns and attention.

Commenting on the crisis in the party, Balogun described how some group of people in the guise of working for the Federal Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola took over the affairs of the party, due to their closeness with the minister, who according to him had the ears of Asiwaju (Tinubu).

He however claimed the centres have since then failed to hold after the emergence of the group tagged Alimosho G-18 (in charge of nominations of the Chairmen, Councillors, Assembly members both at the State and Federal).

“After the general elections in 2019 in which Alimosho displayed a total failure of votes cast, contrary to what we were known for, the National Leader of our great party publicly tagged Alimosho APC, a failure – the video is everywhere. This caused an immense embarrassment to us and many other party members felt it was time to redeem our political image, restore hope to the party members, give them the sense of belonging, compel our elected officials to use the money statutorily meant for the development of our community directly to them, and stop diverting public funds meant for development to service the so-called G-18 leaders,” he alleged.

He further stated that his faction met with some stakeholders of the party in the state to address some of their grievances in the interest of the party.

“As part of our resolutions, the party agreed that there should be decentralisation of party leadership, freedom to contest elections, and independence of elected officials.

“Our efforts eventually paid off as the party leaders in their magnanimity agreed that the just concluded local government elections should be the launchpad for the settlement and resolve of our agitations. It was agreed that we the Liberation/Veterans should accept 2 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) and 1 Local government. While the other faction should take the remaining structures,” he opined.

He added; “We later heard that our National Leader (Tinubu) had instructed that all first-term Chairmen across the State should go back for their second terms. This effectively put aside the earlier agreement, hence we had to go back to the drawing board for another agreement, because 1 LGA and 3 LCDAs are beneficiaries of the new order.

“It was later agreed that Igando-Ikotun LCDA where the Chairman is completing her two-term tenure should be given to us while we have 14 Councillors, and 3 vice-chairmen, while we wait to get SLGs and Supervisory Councillors.”

“But to our surprise again, we were shortchanged, as the number of Councillors given to us was reduced to 10. Our hopes of having the vice-chairman in Mosan-Okunola and Egbe-Idimu LCDAs were dashed again. We complained to the State-Organized Reconciliation Committee and they promised to look into this abnormality and make the necessary corrections. During the meetings with the reconciliation committee, Alhaji Abdullah Enilolobo, the leader of the G-18 group professed that Igando-Ikotun LCDA had been given to us through HE Adejoke Orelope Adefilure.

“The next wonder of the world was that our candidate for that office in Igando-Ikotun LCDA, Hon. Oseni Ahmed olajide, who had his name pasted by LASIEC, went for screening and did all that was necessary got replaced shortly after the Local Government elections.

“It all started as a rumour to us, but it became a reality that, Hon. Ahmed Olajide Oseni’s name which was cleared for the 24th July election, after winning the election. What we later heard was that, his name has been substituted the night before the election. We did not find this laughable but highly provocative and insulting. Who authorized the changes? What does the law say about the changes of names and substitutions? Why are we in the dark about the changes? What were the parameters that warranted his substitution after the election?

“With Utmost respect to the party (APC) National hierarchy in our dear country Nigeria, we write to express our displeasure on the political oppression, sidelining and imposition of an undeserving candidate in the person of Hon. Mutiu Adebiyi, the current vice Chairman of Egbe-Idimu LCDA against the party’s agreed candidate for vice-chairman, Hon. Lukman Idowu Ishola under the leadership of our amiable leader, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

“Hon Idowu who had paid his dues politically and socially to be the second citizen of the council in the next administration and the youth have confirmed that Idimu and Isheri constituents have not been represented in the present administration because both the incumbent Chairman, Hon. Kunle Sanyaolu Olowoopejo and his vice, Hon Mutiu Adebiyi are from Egbe, which is just a fraction of the entire LCDA.”