The National Committee members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) led by Dr. Muhammed Bashir, on Saturday, July 31, 2021 linked the massive infrastructural renewal across the State to political stability being enjoyed in the State, saying it was time for such to be replicated nationwide to facilitate growth and development.
Bashir, speaking on the APC ward congress in Lagos commended members of the party for their peaceful conduct during the congresses which he said was hitch-free but a group led by Dr. Babajide Adediran, popularly called “Jandor,” in the All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos chapter, Lagos4Lagos, has explained the reason why the group held a parallel ward congress in the State to elect officers at the Local Government level.
At the Lagos4Lagos congresses held at Osolu Village in Osolu Primary./Junior High School, Badagry Division, Mr. Tajudeen Dosumu, emerged as the new Chairman of APC party.
The convener, Lagos4Lagos Movement, Abdul Azzez Adediran, said he has mobilised over 6000 members of the party to challenge the political hegemony of National Leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He said the Buni-led committee should investigate what transpired at the Lagos Local Government primaries with the determination to probe the situation.
In his words, Jandor said, “We have passed a vote of no confidence on the leadership of APC in Lagos State. And we want the National Caretaker of our party to dissolve the State caretaker committee. They collected our money promising to conduct Local Government primaries, which they didn’t do but instead imposed their candidates.
“We paid N2 million to buy forms for Local Government chairmanship and N550,000.00 for chancellorship forms and at the end of the day, they mismanaged our money without even given us opportunities to elect our choice candidates. We are saying enough of imposing unpopular candidates on us.”
“We discovered that forms for positions by interested candidates were hijacked at the office of the Governor after certain guidelines had been given to whoever has interest in elected positions from the State party which we paid for and all our queries on the issue could not be answered by Bashir- led committee during last Friday stakeholders meeting.
“However, the new Executive officers have been briefed on what to do to start mobilizing the people.”
Also speaking, the Principal Coordinator, Lagos4Lagos, Mr. Bode Makinde, described how important Saturday congress was to the group.
He said: “We want to prove to the whole world that Lagos4Lagos is popular and we want to deviate from old order and showcase our strength in all the wards in Lagos State for internal democracy to play its role in APC, and to have an edge because we have a large membership strength in all the 245 wards in Lagos state.
“There is no how they won’t consider Lagos4Lagos having seen it practically in APC, and we won’t allow strange one to represent us at the State for we are member of APC from the scratch.
But in a quick reaction, the caretaker committee chairman, Lagos State chapter of APC, Tunde Balogun, said no parallel congress was held in the State on Saturday, maintaining that members of the party agreed and went for a consensus arrangement to elect 37 Exco members each in all 245 Wards across the 20 Local Governments in Lagos.
Balogun said this while reacting to the rumour of parallel congress, even as he maintained that the consensus arrangement adopted by the State chapter of the party to elect its officials was sanctioned by the APC National headquarters, being part of the party’s constitution.
He stressed that consensus equally required that candidates would emerge through “yes” or voice vote, after they must have bought nomination forms, filled and submitted them to the appropriate quarter.
Speaking further on the parallel exercise purportedly held by some party members, Balogun said he was not aware of such, but quickly counseled that people should stop emphasizing things that would want to create problems in APC fold.
He said rather they should concentrate on things that would make the party cohesive, and not emphasising a particular candidate or person trying to do something outside what was agreed upon.
Balogun said: “Parallel, I don’t know that one. I want people to stop emphasising things that will want to create problems in our fold. Make us cohesive, not emphasising a particular candidate or person trying to do something.
“We want consensus and you know what consensus means, it is coexistence, coming together to make us one. Everyone is a member of the party, we are all brothers.
