The All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairmanship primary election in Lagos State has been hit by allegations of widespread irregularities, with serious accusations of electoral fraud emerging from Eti-Osa Local Government Area (LGA).
The APC local government chairmanship primaries for 20 LGAs and 37 local council development areas (LCDAs) were held on Saturday.
The election was held amidst tight security with a heavy presence of police operatives at the party secretariat on Acme Road, Ikeja.
Wasiu Yekini Babatunde, one of the chairmanship aspirants for Eti-Osa LGA, is at the centre of the controversy after his agent and several delegates alleged the election was manipulated to favour other contenders.
Speaking after the election, Mallam Jida Saheed, who identified himself as Babatunde’s agent, decried what he described as “broad daylight robbery. ” He claimed that agents were denied access to observe the voting process, a move he believes compromised the transparency of the election.
“What we saw wasn’t what we expected,” Saheed said. “First, when we came here, the agents were not allowed to be in the room where the delegates would vote in the election.”
According to Saheed, irregularities worsened after voting concluded, when the ballot counting process reportedly produced results that did not reflect the delegates’ actual choices.
“After the voting and the whole election had been concluded, they brought out the votes and said they would count the votes and that everything would be transparent. But unfortunately, what we saw was a broad daylight robbery,” he said.
He added, “It was a shame to our party because, how can an aspirant who has over 15 delegates, when the counting was going on, they said one aspirant scored 19 votes, another aspirant scored one vote, and our aspirant who the majority of the delegates voted for didn’t score anything.”
“This is an imposition and not an election. We are not going to accept it. The leaders should look into it and our mandate should be returned to our aspirant,” Saheed said, warning that the fallout could hurt the party in future elections.
Saheed further referenced the party’s performance in the 2023 general elections, where the APC lost the Eti-Osa House of Representatives seat to the Labour Party, a surprising upset widely attributed to internal party divisions and allegations of imposition during the primaries.
“That was what they did that we lost the 2023 election. As we speak, in the 2023 election, we lost Eti-Osa Local Government to the Labour Party because of the greed and selfishness of our leaders, and they have done it again,” he said.
Supporting Saheed’s claims, several delegates, including Mr. Lawandi Abubakar, Mr. Alabi Olupekun, Hon. Akin Mustapha, Mr. Wasiu Owolabi, Mr. Rasheed Kokolowo, Mr. James Aderogu, Mr. Bello Olatunde, Mr. Maja Abide, Mr. Murtala Akinyu, and Mr. Olukunle Alabi, among others, confirmed they had voted for Babatunde.
However, they claimed none of their votes were reflected in the final count.
As of press time, the APC Lagos State leadership has not issued a formal response to the allegations.
However, the controversy could heighten internal tensions within the party as it gears up for the local government elections later this year.
