LAHA 2019: UNEASY CALM IN IKORODU AS PARTY FAITHFULS AWAIT THE RESULT OF INCONCLUSIVE PRIMARY ELECTION

There is currently a cloud of uneasy calm pervading the entire Ikorodu political landscape, following yesterday’s inconclusive APC house of assembly primary election in the community.

The election, which was meant to be a major battle of the titans among seven aspirants ended abruptly when some hired thugs, loyal to some of the aspirants started shooting sporadically into the air, dispersing party member who had assembled to participate in the election. While the melee lasted, electoral officers and agents of the aspirants scampered for safety.

Investigations conducted by Ikorodu Oga Radio revealed that election held in only a handful of the 12 wards in the constituency, while the election was did not hold in most of the wards, due to the violence and unresolved disagreements that erupted among loyalists of the different political camps.

For instance, there was no election in Ward E and F, as party faithfuls did not return to the Adeniran Ogunsanya party secretariat and the Anwar-Islam Eid praying ground, after escaping gunshots by the whiskers. Business and other commercial activities of residents of the Obafemi Awolowo way was negatively affected by the unfortunate incident, until the intervention of army officers and other security agencies who brought the situation under control.

Similarly, the election also came to an abrupt end at wards A and B by the water corporation on Lagos road, just when party faithful were on the queue to cast their votes for their preferred aspirants. It has been alleged that the party leader in the Community and a former deputy governor of Lagos State, Prince Abiodun Ogunleye insisted that the election would not hold when he allegedly suspected that the electoral officers had been compromised by a certain aspirant.

Our source further revealed that the octogenarian took the position having realized that many supposed party faithfuls who were mobilised to vote at the exercise were impersonators as checks revealed that many of them were armed with party membership cards that does not correlate with their names, tribes and gender.

Efforts to reach the Ikorodu APC apex leader for his own side of the story has not materialized as at the time of filing this report. Though there are some unofficial results being bandied around on social media by some party members, loyal to an aspirant, the veracity of the purported result cannot be ascertained as it has no traceable source and is not signed by any electoral officer or agents of other aspirants in the election.

Efforts to reach Alh Taiwo Longe, Chairman APC Ikorodu local government for comments on the veracity of the result or a confirmation of the party’s position on the inconclusive election proved abortive as calls and text messages sent to his line has not been responded to.

Meanwhile, the media camps of the incumbent House of Assembly member, Hon S.O.B Agunbiade and that of another leading aspirant, Hon Toyin Gafar a.k.a Bolowotan has rolled out ‘Thank You’ messages on social media for the ‘overwhelming’ support they received at the primary election.

As the INEC deadline for the submission of candidate’s names expires tomorrow, 7th October, it is believed that the winner of the exercise will be announced to beat the deadline.

Some of the party faithfuls leaving the voting centre

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