Ahead of the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries across Lagos State, youths have raised concerns over plans by party leaders in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) to impose a candidate on members inspite of the warning issued by the APC national leader, Bola Tinubu, that all aspirants be given equal chances to vie for tickets.
The youths added that the leaders including immediate former commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan, APC former chairman, Henry Ajomale, and the ex-commissioner for Home Affairs, Abdulateef Abdulhakeem, who was also the apex Leader of Ambode’s group (Itesiwaju Ipinle Eko), had concluded plans to use the second term of the incumbent Chairman of the council, Mosuru Obe, to truncate the party plans during 2023 general elections.
Speaking under the aegis of Ejigbo Youth Vanguard (EYV), yesterday, they further alleged that the leaders were leaving no stone unturned to impose Obe on members during Saturday’s council primaries.
The allegations were contained in a letter written to the Executive Governor of the state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, which was co-signed by the Coordinator, Agbabiaka Rasheed Abudllahi, Vice Chairman, Ngozi Aburime, General Secretary, Ndubuisi Paul Benedict, and Publicity Secretary, Adewale Ibrahim Audu.
The letter reads in part: “We will not wait and watch them and their cohorts destroy Ejigbo LCDA. However, the recent development in Ejigbo LCDA has not really impressed us. The state of our roads in Ejigbo and the financial recklessness of the incumbent Chairman, Monsuru Obe has gone haywire. He has used the Commonwealth of Ejigbo Local Council Development Area to acquire filling stations, seventy landed properties in and outside Ejigbo LCDA and these the youths have seen and are not convenient with.
” How can a man whom we collectively worked for having been picked by his Party, APC, now work against the same party, and even issue threats to encourage the opponents, PDP, to win in subsequent elections.
” We have therefore resolved that either Obe or Bamigbetan is fielded in future elections, we will not go out to vote. We shall mobilise the women, senior citizens, and youths to boycott elections. This is the main reason we had less than 3,000 votes in the Ejigbo LCDA during the local government elections in 2017.
” We humbly appeal to you to use your good office to stop the candidacy of Alhaji Monsuru Bello Obe in the forthcoming local government elections. He has ruined the economic viability of Ejigbo LCDA.
” The incumbent Chairman has used our commonwealth for his personal aggrandizement. He has enriched himself and his family. We don’t want him. In lieu of the above, we want Peter Ajayi whose vision and courage represent what we stand for. We want fresh ideas in dispensing governance here at Ejigbo LCDA.
” Without mincing words, he singlehandedly reached out to quite an innumerable number of people during the lockdown and festive periods. We want to plead to you to oblige us by giving us Peter Ajayi as the next Executive Chairman of Ejigbo LCDA”.
