….Says ‘We Are Ready For LG Congress’
A political group within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos state, Lagos4Lagos, has laid claim to the ownership of the party in the state, saying that it has the numerical strength to take back the party from any group.
The Lead Visioner of the group, Olajide Adediran (Jandor), made this claim on Friday in Ikeja-Lagos during a press briefing on the feedback from the group’s appearance before the Lagos State APC Ward Congress Appeal Committee set up by the Gov. Mai Mala Buni led National Caretaker Committee.
It would be recalled that the Ibrahim Akaje led Appeal Committee was to air the grievances of aggrieved groups over the conduct of the Ward Congresses held on July 31st in Lagos state.
Adediran said the group had presented its case before the Appeal Committee with concrete evidences to show the alleged high level of impunity exercised by the Alhaji Tunde Balogun’s led State Caretaker Committee during the ward congresses.
He added that he expected the appeal committee to be fair, just and transparent in their recommendation, noting that if the committee’s recommendation was not favourable the group would approach the court for justice.
Adediran stated that the boycott of the last local government elections by the group’s members exposed the weaknesses of the State Caretaker Committee, adding that Lagos4Lagos has over two million members who could have added numerical value to the votes recorded by the party.
” Lagos4Lagos has the majority in the membership drive of Lagos APC. The boycott of the local government elections by our group exposed the Balogun led State Caretaker Committee to ridicule with the poor result of 540,000 votes for a party that is in power. We did not participate in the local government elections because we did not believe in the process and so it was obvious that the absence of our 2million members made the party to realise the poor results.
” What we are saying is that we are the majority in Lagos APC. We have our elected ward executives list for all the 245 wards in the state and it has been submitted to the National body. The Balogun led group as at yesterday was yet to compile theirs. This is to show you that we have our members across all board and also a serious group”, said Adediran.
Responding to questions from journalists, Adediran said although consensus arrangement was constitutional to the party but that the group was not involved before the ward congresses, adding that he was yet to understand why the Balogun led group would be scared of going into election despite being the state caretaker committee.
He stated further that at different venue of the ward congresses, Lagos4Lagos aspirants appeared for affirmation by its members, adding that such did not happen in the case of the Balogun led group.
Adediran restated the group’s readiness for the coming local government congress on September 4, adding that its aspirants were ready to contend with others.
Also, the two representatives of the group who appeared before the Ibrahim Akaje Appeal Committee, Prince Sunday Ajayi and Mr Segun Aka-Bashorun, separately said they presented convincing evidences which includes the bank tellers for the purchase of nomination forms of all the aspirants, adding that they informed the committee of the group’s efforts in mobilising people during the party’s membership registration.
They said ” We told them we are the majority based on our 2million membership drive. We told them that we do not believe in the impunity that have been existing in Lagos APC for years. The Balogun led group has tried their best and have failed.
” From the way the Appeal Committee comported itself yesterday, it shows they want to know the truth and we want them to be fair and be just in their recommendations”, said Ajayi and Aka Bashorun.
