On February 5, ahead of the presidential election, former minister of State Defence, and Lagos state APC chieftain, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, initiated a reconciliation and stakeholders meeting for APC Amuwo-Odofin where salient matters were addressed.
In attendance at the meeting held at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Festac were Deputy Governor Obafemi Hamzat, Senator Ganiu Solomon, party stalwart, grassroots mobilizers, party leaders, movers and shakers of Amuwo politics.
Despite the appeal by Dr. Hamzat to the party faithful to shelve their differences and his plead that all hands must be on deck to ensure victory of all candidates of the All Progressives Congress to forestall the woeful performance recorded in 2019 general election; Unfortunately, the same woe has befallen Amuwo-Odofin again being the least local government out of 20 LGA election results released with 13,318 scored by APC against the LP with 55,547 scored.
It is imperative to note that, there is high level of irresponsibility of party leaders in Amuwo-Odofin especially the local government chairman, Hon. Valentine Buraimoh who is the number one leader playing divide and rule, anti-party card to the hands of the political opposition Labour Party which is against the constitution of the party as stated in Article 21(A)(ii) of the All Progressives Congress Constitution stipulated, the Party shall have power to discipline any member who engages in anti-party activities. “Offenses against the Party shall include, Anti-Party activities or any conduct, which is likely to embarrass or have an adverse effect on the party or bring the party into hatred, contempt, ridicule, or disrepute.”
I call on the state party chairman, to summon all the party EXCOs because NO party members are simply above the law; This is very important because we have two weeks to the Gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections scheduled for March 11, so this greedy political gladiators will not decimated APC government in the state.
From an insider, impeccable source revealed APC Apex leaders in Amuwo-Odofin unanimously colluded to work against the APC House of Rep. Candidate, Prince Lanre Sanusi PLS, for the opposition Labour Party to have free access to operate. It’s interesting to note also that, DG Omogeye campaign organization, Mr. Sei Ipinlaye is under payroll structure of the council chairman, Hon. Valentine Buraimoh and five of the SAs to the council chairman secretly led the campaign for the Labour Party candidate, Hon. George Olawande Omogeye and choose party agent from APC members.
This was obviously played out at last week’s Saturday election as all the party gladiators disappeared to thin air and Labour Party dominated all the polling units across the council areas and came out victorious.
In this second scenario, how could APC Candidate for Lagos House of Assembly, Amuwo Odofin constituency I, Hon. Olusegun Olaitan (Ola Western) seeking to represent the youth and interest of the party, swtch off his phone numbers on the day of elections with flimsy excuse that his phone numbers were off because there is no light to charge them.
However, It is an open secret that some APC members are secretly working for the victory of Omogeye.
I have taken my time to understudy behaviour and attitude of these local political actors from the council chairman down to councillors are inconsequential with not leverage at the grassroots level.
While the dust raise in Amuwo Odofin local government has yet to settle and over the outcome of the results over anti-party activities, the status quo of the current political hegemony and patrimonial political leaders in Amuwo Odofin no longer relevant as Amuwo Youth can take the centre stage of Amuwo politics.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
