Eniola Akinkuotu
16 June 2021
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Some winners of the local government and councillorship primaries conducted by the All Progressives Congress, have been surreptitiously replaced in the list published by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission.
It was gathered that several of those who won the primary and were so declared, had their names replaced with those of persons who lost the May 29 contest.
In the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, for example, Mr. Dipo Olorunrinu, a former member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, was declared winner of the local government chairmanship primary and was presented with the LASIEC form which was filled and published.
Maureen Ashara was named as the winner of the Vice Chairmanship seat while for councillorship, Olulade Temitope, was named winner of Ward A1 Eko Akete.
In A2 Odofin ward, Oreofe Elliot, was declared winner and in Ward K Ifelodun (FESTAC III), Egobi Osagie-Daniel emerged victorious.
In Ward C Orire (FESTAC II), Ahmed Mohammed was declared winner while in B1 Irepodun (FESTAC IA), Anuoluwapo Adeosun emerged as winner. In B2 Ado (FESTAC IB), Idowu Saidat emerged victorious and in J Tomaro/Ilado ward, Iwakun Oluwafemi was the winner.
However, it was learnt that four of the victorious candidates were mysteriously dropped when the final list was published by LASIEC.
The winner of the local government chairmanship primary, Olorunrinu, was dropped and his name was substituted with Valentine Buraimoh, who is the current chairman of the local government.
Another winner of the councillorship primary, Adeosun, was replaced with Abimbola Oshodi while Osagie-Daniel was replaced by Ajide Fatai and Oluwafemi was substituted with Kiki Emmanuel.
Sources within the APC said some of the new candidates were imposed by some party leaders for reasons best known to them.
When contacted on the telephone, the APC Spokesman in Lagos State, Seye Oladejo, said some of the changes were approved by the appeal committee.
Oladejo, however, said the committee was still sitting and changes could still be corrected.
The APC spokesman said, “After the primaries, we set up an electoral appeal committee to entertain petitions from aggrieved aspirants and there were places where primaries were disrupted and since we were pressed for time, the option was not to do a fresh primary but for leaders in the affected place to sit down and reach a consensus on who would be candidates.
“The alternative would have been for our party not to have candidates which would not be acceptable to us. So, after they appear before the committee or consensus, there could be changes based on the decisions of the appeal committee or consensus and as it is, the appeal committee is still sitting so they haven’t completed their assignments.”
