A group, within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos, Lagos4Lagos, has submitted the list of winners of the ward congress held last Saturday to the national Caretaker and Extra-Ordinary Convention Committee (CECC) in Abuja on Tuesday.
It would be recalled that there were parallel congresses in the state as different factions held their congresses across the wards in the state.ó
It was gathered that the group went to Abuja with a letter explaining what transpired on Saturday.
In the letter sighted by our correspondent, the group explained that the ward congresses had distasteful and undemocratic practices dished out with a greater degree of impunity.
In the letter duly signed by the lead visioner of the movement, Olajide Adediran (Jandor), the group added ” the issue of consensus assumes that all members/factions of the party are called into a meeting to align/harmonise and then reach a consensus. No such thing happened. The only stakeholders’ meeting that held was on the eve of the election with a rehash of already known guidelines being as the only agenda item. As usual, pre-selected candidates by the State are meant are the consensus”.
It read further ” On nomination forms, as at 5pm on the eve of the Ward Congress, nobody had been given nomination form despite making payments. Our members in Lagos4Lagos had made their payments for over a week and were not given Nomination forms, a directive from the Office of the Governor of the State as revealed by our investigation ”
The group explained ” On absence of Local Ward Congress Committee, the guidelines for the conduct of the party’s ward congresses are unambiguous regarding constituting a local ward Congress committee (LWCC) to oversee the conduct of the elections. The guidelines were ignored.
” Clearly, all the above are the usual calculated methods of disenfranchisement that is repeatedly inflicted on the residents of Lagos. Despite these, members of the Lagos4Lagos Movement trooped out in their large numbers across all the 245 wards in the state to express their rights as enshrined in our constitution, to choose their ward executives. This was done via filing and affirmation. Please find attached a list of all of our members that made payment as well as the bank tellers with which the payments were made.
” The residents of Lagos are tired of these unending compositions in a democracy and your intervention at the national level is needed much more than ever”.
However, speaking on phone with the group’s Director of Media, Seun Soyinka, he said ” Yes, we have just submitted the list of ward executives to the party in Abuja this afternoon (Tuesday). we also wrote letter to the National leadership of the party stating what transpired in last Saturday’s ward congresses in Lagos. Both the list and the letter were received by the Caretaker and Extra-ordinary Convention Committee (CECC)
