The crisis in the All Progressives Congress in Lagos over the choice of candidates to represent the party in the forthcoming local government council elections in the state is worsening by the day as more aggrieved party stalwarts have vowed to sabotage the party during the poll.
Findings by The Point have revealed that the contending issues had made some of the APC stalwarts across the state to resolve to defect to other parties to realise their political ambition.
Most of them claimed that they decided to put their candidacy on hold in the party over the years, before the merger that gave birth to the ruling APC.
At the Apapa Local Government, members are currently threatening to dump the APC over the alleged imposition of Adele Elijah Owolabi as the chairmanship candidate of the party following last Saturday’s primary election that was marred by violence.
A source in the APC chapter in the local government hinted that the residents of the area had concluded arrangements to work against the success of the party in the forthcoming coming poll.
But a close ally of the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu, said that the Lagos exgovernor had earlier rejected imposition of candidates during the local government primaries, but had to concede when he learnt that the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, endorsed some persons, including Owolabi, as the sole candidates of the party.
He said, “The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, forwarded Owolabi’s name to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as his preferred candidate for the chairmanship seat in Apapa.
“He was ill-advised to e n d o r s e Owolabi as sole candidate by Rep. Ayodeji Joseph, a current member of the National Assembly, who was also a former council boss in Apapa.
“However, Tinubu had flatly rejected the aspiration of Adele Owolabi or even the imposition of any candidate at all. “But this is politics; he had to concede and step aside from the entire process as a mark of honour for the Acting President.”
It was also gathered that plans had been concluded to mobilise residents of the area to defect en mass from the APC with a view to working against the success of the party in the July 22 council poll in the state, if the party leadership insists on fielding Owolabi as the sole candidate.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that “a similar scenario played out in Amuwo Odofin, Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Ojo Local Government Areas in the 2015 general elections, where the APC lost some Federal House of Representative seats to protest votes.”
The Tinubu ally, however, further said, “We do not have personal issues with any candidate. All we are asking for is a transparent, free and fair primary election in which the party’s flag bearer in the forthcoming local government elections will be democratically chosen by delegates.”
