Things have fallen apart between Governance Advisory Council of the Lagos State chapter and All Progressives Congress Chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi.
There have been campaign across the 57 LCDA in Lagos that APC Chairman , Ojelabi and his inner caucus have not been fair to candidates during the last local government elections.
However, some members of the Governance Advisory Council of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress were on Monday divided clamouring to eject party’s chairman, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi.
some GAC members are not satisfied with Ojelabi but council is the highest decision-making organ of the APC in Lagos State.
More so, development followed a protest by some aggrieved party members who stormed the state House of Assembly to call for the sacking of Ojelabi and other party chieftains over what they described as “imposition of candidates” and “anti-grassroots leadership.”
The party chairman, however, faulted the call, describing the accusations as baseless.
The protesters from different local councils in the state held placards with inscriptions such as “Ojelabi Must Go,” “Faleke is a Betrayal,” and “Ojelabi, Mr Voter’s Apathy.”
They called for inclusion, fairness, and an end to what they described as top-down manipulation of local politics.
One of the protest leaders, Ogumba Adetunbosun from Ikorodu, said the protest was borne out of deep dissatisfaction with the way local government elections were conducted and how supervisory positions were being imposed without input from the grassroots.
“We’re concerned politicians from all 57 local councils. What brought us here is the injustice we witnessed in the just-concluded local government elections.
“Chairmen and vice-chairmen have emerged, but when it came to appointing supervisors and secretaries to local governments, we were sidelined. There was no consultation, no dialogue, and that’s not democracy,” Adetunbosun said.
Another protester, Mrs Bola Balogun from Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA, accused top APC leaders of stifling local democracy.
“Governor Sanwo-Olu said we shouldn’t appoint supervisors for (two) months. Why? They want to impose on us.
“We voted for Mr Governor and President Tinubu, not for them to impose appointees on us. Ojelabi and Faleke are choking the Lagos APC. They’re not listening to the grassroots, and they’re killing the spirit of democracy,” she said.
A member of GAC, Chief Muraina Taiwo, reacted to Punch. He called for the chairman’s sacking, saying Ojelabi was only loyal to a faction of the party in the state, known as the ‘Justice Forum,’ sidelining the ‘Mandate’ and other factions.
Muraina said he was not initially aware of the protest, but noted that “what I know is that party stalwarts are not happy with the party chairman, most especially. The opinion is that they believe he is a Justice Forum member, and he is not trying to balance things. It is obvious in his dealings that he belongs to a faction.
“It’s not beneficial to them and we went to elections and won 375 councillors out of 376? We won 57 council chairmen, and it’s not beneficial to them?
“These are people who do not have substance as to what they are doing. It’s not going to be business as usual. We owe it a responsibility to the people of Lagos State to deliver the dividends of democracy.
“They expect that just as the council chairmen were sworn in yesterday (on Sunday), the issue of appointment of supervisors and other things should just follow immediately, and the governor made a pronouncement: ‘Allow these people to settle down. Let them understand the rudiments of governance. Give them the first 30 days to understand what they are inheriting. As you inherit assets, you equally inherit liability.’
“Is it at the state level that we’re going to appoint supervisors and SAs? No. We want the involvement of the leadership of each local government,”, Ojelabi reacted.
