Politics

LG Poll: Revolt In Lagos APC Over Imposition

Published

2 months ago

May 10, 2025

…Protests rock councils over controversial list

…Party defends consensus, denies allegations

Crisis is brewing within the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress ahead of the July 12 local government elections, as many chairmanship aspirants and party leaders have kicked against what they described as a plot to impose candidates.

The aggrieved members and leaders, drawn from various local government areas and local council development areas, accused key figures within the party of attempting to sideline grassroots democracy by handpicking candidates rather than allowing a level playing field.

The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission had, in April, released the timetable and guidelines for the commencement of the electoral process for the 57 council chairmanship seats and 376 councillorship positions spread across the state’s 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs.

The announcement came as the tenure of the current local council officials is set to end in July.

The PUNCH reported that the party pushed for the adoption of consensus in selecting candidates for the party’s council primaries, scheduled for Saturday (today).

Following the party’s decision, it was gathered that party leaders in various LGAs set up internal committees to screen aspirants and streamline those to be adopted as consensus candidates.

However, the move has sparked outrage among some aspirants and party members, who allege that the process was being used to impose preferred candidates rather than allowing for fair competition.

The situation is said to have led to protests in some local councils, with party members alleging subversion of the democratic process.

In Ojokoro LCDA, a group of party leaders, under the auspices of Ojokoro Apex Council, reportedly screened three chairmanship aspirants, out of which one Mobolaji Sanusi, emerged as the consensus candidate.

Sanusi’s emergence was announced in a letter signed by former members of the House of Representatives, Ipoola Omisore and Adisa Owolabi, and addressed to the state APC chairman, Cornelius Ojelabi.

Attached to the letter was the signature page of the consensus resolution, showing the names of the party leaders and their signatures.

The signatories included the incumbent chairman of the LCDA, Idowu Tijani.

However, trouble started a few days later when one Rosiji Yemisi emerged as a chairmanship candidate from another screening conducted by a different group of party leaders.

A member of the group, who spoke with one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, accused the apex council of attempting to impose a “foreigner backed by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudasiru Obasa”, on them as their chairmanship candidate.

He warned that imposing an outsider with no electoral history in Ojokoro would have negative consequences.

Protests also erupted in Yaba LCDA over an alleged plot to impose one Babatunde Ojo as the chairmanship candidate of the party.

A coalition of concerned landlords, electorates, and political stakeholders in the LCDA raised the alarm over a plot to replace the name of the aspirant who emerged top during the screening exercise with that of Ojo.

The PUNCH gathered that another aspirant, William Babatunde, scored 85 per cent to emerge top while Ojo polled 65 per cent and came 11th out of the 14 aspirants screened.

The coalition, led by Amoo Ismail, petitioned the First Lady, Mrs Oluremi Tinubu, urging her and the President to intervene and prevent what they described as a repeat of past political imposition that hindered development in the area.

“It is important to emphasise that we have credible leaders within our community who are capable of selecting the most qualified candidate from the broad pool of aspirants. It is simply unjust and disheartening to the political stakeholders in the local government that a single individual continues to unilaterally impose a chairmanship candidate upon us.

“In light of this, we humbly implore Your Excellency, and His Excellency the President, to kindly intervene and consider alternative options that will better serve the interests of our community.

“A more inclusive and consultative approach, one that values the voices of grassroots mobilisers and other key stakeholders, will likely yield a more favourable outcome for both the local government and our great party,” the coalition said.

An aide to one of the aspirants, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused the party leaders in the LCDA of using the name of President Bola Tinubu to justify the imposition of candidates.

“They are going around telling us that the President has given the directive on who should emerge. This is false and disrespectful to the President, who is known to support internal democracy,” he said.

Lamenting the adoption of the consensus method, Opeyemi Ahmed, the media aide to the outgoing Chairman of Agboyi-Ketu LCDA, Dele Osinowo, accused some party leaders of imposition by single-handedly picking their preferred candidates.

Ahmed, in a now-deleted post on Facebook, said the situation, if not checked, might cost Tinubu his re-election bid.

“The party is not sincere with its guidelines; from direct to indirect to consensus. We can do better. Let’s give a sense of belonging to everyone. Tinubu needs to win Lagos, but if a few are writing names at the top and using fake strategy to call for consensus at the bottom, then Tinubu should be ready to lose come 2027,” Ahmed said.

Speaking on the issue, a chieftain of the party, Fouad Oki, issued a stern warning to party leaders, urging them to embrace internal democracy or risk electoral backlash.

He issued the warning in an open letter titled, “Lagos APC’s crisis of Democracy: Internal strife and the risk to President Tinubu’s stronghold”.

“The Lagos APC must choose democracy over cliques. If party managers still believe they know better than voters, permit me to remind you of the stakes: disenfranchised grassroots can sabotage not only council polls, but also general elections to come. Unity forged under injustice is brittle; lasting strength requires inclusivity,” he warned.

He added that the APC could either learn from previous political missteps and legal precedents in Lagos or repeat them and suffer the consequences.

“Let this op-ed be a rallying cry within the party: abandon the politics of imposition, honour the rights of members, and give Lagosians a real voice. Failing that, our party risks losing Lagos not to an opposition challenger, but to its own internal discord – a disaster that would echo all the way to 2027,” Oki concluded.

Reacting to the allegations, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Lagos, Seye Oladejo, dismissed claims of imposition, insisting that the party had not concluded its primary processes and that consensus remained a legitimate and constitutionally recognised mechanism.

He noted that consensus had always worked for the party and helped manage post-primary fallout.

Oladejo said, “We have not concluded the process of the primaries, which will be held on Saturday. For those who have been able to reach consensus, there will be affirmation, but for those who have not reached consensus, their delegates will decide who their preferred candidates will be in their respective local governments.

“If we have not concluded the process, nobody can allege imposition. Then, where there is consensus, their leaders will need to sign off to indicate that they all agreed on a particular candidate. And when an aspirant is not happy, he can insist on going to the primary and, if he wins, good luck.

“Nobody is imposing anything on anybody; we cherish internal democracy in our party, and we have always strived on all of this. So, you cannot allege an imposition, even when the process has not been completed.”

Speaking on the reason for the party adopting consensus, he said, “As a party, we see ourselves as members of the same family. Consensus has always been easier to manage, whatever fallout might arise from the process of electing candidates for elections. So, consensus, over time, has worked for us and is recognised by our constitution.

“We have an internal mechanism for resolving conflicts or disagreements, and that machinery will be ignited to resolve whatever grey areas arise as a fallout of the primaries. I can assure you that we will take care of it as we have always done.”
(PUNCH)

Politics

Anambra Revenue Service Faults Obi’s Claim On Brewery’s Tax Ranking

Published

8 hours ago

July 17, 2025

Editor

The Anambra State Internal Revenue Service has dismissed the claims made by the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, that SABMiller Breweries is the highest taxpayer in the state.

According to a press statement released on Thursday, the Chairman, AIRS, Dr Greg Ezeilo, said a check on the last two years data by the agency showed that SABMiller company came a distant sixth position behind Fidelity Bank Plc.

Ezeilo was reacting to the statement credited to Obi, where he said SABMiller, built by his administration when he was the state governor, is the highest tax payer in the state.

The former Anambra State governor stated this last Friday while addressing a gathering of Labour Party stalwarts and supporters at the All Saints Cathedral field, Onitsha, Anambra State, during the campaign flag-off of Labour Party candidate for the November 8, 2025 governorship election in the state, Dr George Moghalu, and his running mate,.

“You can assess yourselves, governance for me is about compassion and empathy, caring for the lowly, petty traders. It is not these same poor masses you tax. Instead of ensuring they feed well and go to school.

“I have governed Anambra State and I don’t boast of things I didn’t do, they are verifiable.

“You might have heard that the only thing they said I did was to build brewery, but the same brewery gave employment to thousands of people. The brewery I built is the highest tax payer in the state and boosts the Internally Generated Revenue.

“You can compare that with the Fun City you have today, which one is more profitable? We chose a female deputy governor because we want to care for families, she is not only popular, but organised,” Obi stated.

But while dismissing Obi’s claims, Ezeilo, said contrary to his claims, SABMiller contributed on the average, N28 million per month in 2023 and N26.62 million per month in 2024, thereby becoming the sixth ranked tax paying company in the state.

Ezeilo said the clarifications became necessary to properly situate the claims made by the former governor and to give undiluted information for the members of the public to note.

The statement read in part, “The attention of the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service has been drawn to some public domain of claims regarding the fact that SABMiller Breweries is the highest taxpayer in the state.

“For the avoidance of doubts, while the Service has made very monumental strides in increasing the internally generally revenue of the State from its very low ebb of between N1.5bn to N2.0bn per month, and even much lower in the previous years; the tax collection has consistently moved up to N4bn per month and with an all-time high of N10.5bn in the month of May, 2025.

“A double-check on the last two years data on tax collections across corporate bodies, including SABMiller, but excluding Federal Institutions which contribute hugely to the state’s IGR, especially the pay as you earn taxes, showed the position of top six taxpayers in the state.

“Interestingly, SABMiller company comes a distant sixth position behind Fidelity Bank Plc with a gross tax payment of N656.5 million in two years (2023 and 2024).

“In this sense, the claim can be dissmissd with a wave of hand as the company in question contributed on the average, N28million per month in 2023 and N26.62million per month in 2024.

“The above clarifications became necessary to properly situate the claims made by the former governor and to give undiluted information for the members of the public to note.

“Additionally, there’s the need to provide answers to certain public inquiries either to prove or disprove the claims as published in the media. Please accept the esteemed assurances of the Service.”

Politics

He’s Always Leaving, Wike’s Aide Mocks Atiku Over PDP Exit

Published

9 hours ago

July 17, 2025

Editor

The Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communication and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, has described the resignation of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from the Peoples Democratic Party ahead of the 2027 election, as “good riddance to bad rubbish”.

The PUNCH reports that former Atiku resigned from the PDP in a letter dated July 16, 2025, addressed to the Chairman of his Jada 1 Ward in Adamawa State, citing “irreconcilable differences” in the party, while describing his exit as a heartbreaking decision, being a founding father of the party.

Speaking on Thursday on Channels Television breakfast show, Sunrise Daily, Olayinka noted that with the former VP’s exit, the party could gather itself together.

He said, “Well, my first reaction yesterday was that, Atiku Abubakar leaving the PDP, to me, is good riddance to bad rubbish. It is like how our Hausa people will say ‘sai gobe’. One thing I would have loved to see in the reportage yesterday was that the headline should have been ‘Atiku Abubakar leaves PDP again.’

“Because he has been leaving. Since 2007, he has been leaving. So if he chose to leave now, fine. Then the party can now begin to look at itself and bring itself together again. Unfortunately, it is too late, because like I’ve said many times, Atiku Abubakar happened to be like the weapon fashioned against the PDP.”

Addressing Atiku’s alliance with the coalition under the African Democratic Congress, the media aide cited Atiku’s anti-party moves against the PDP, noting that Atiku may yet return to the PDP if his journey in the coalition did not favour him.

“In 2003, PDP’s effort to win Lagos State was frustrated by Alhaji Atiku Abubakar when he was Vice-President, and that was how anti-party started in PDP. In 2018, you can google it, when he went to Lagos, he personally apologised for the role he played in frustrating the effort of the PDP to win Lagos State in 2003.

“In 2007, Atiku Abubakar holds the record of the first Nigerian as vice-president, sitting vice-president, that went to another party, while still holding the mandate of the PDP as vice-president. He went and formed Action Congress with the other people, and he contested as presidential candidate of Action Congress in 2007, even as a sitting vice-president, holding the mandate of the PDP.

“In 2014, it was the same Atiku Abubakar that led the rebellion, that pulled down the PDP, that took the PDP out of power. The only thing that interests Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is to be president of Nigeria, and I begin to wonder, is it that a doctor prescribed presidency to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, so that if you don’t become president, something will happen to you? Because that is the way it is.

“The only thing that is important to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is Atiku and Abubakar. The moment he’s in this party, he cannot get a ticket to contest, he moves to another party. And let me also say this. Write this one down. After this experiment in their coalition, which me I call coalition of confusion, he will still leave their coalition and probably come back to the PDP, as he has been doing,” he said.

Olayinka also faulted Atiku’s release of his resignation letter while the country was still mourning the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari, stating, “The same Atiku has been in Daura, he could not even wait for the seven days mourning period of Buhari to end before making a political decision, I don’t understand why somebody would be so desperate to this extent.”

He advised the PDP to begin putting its house in order, stating however that it may not be necessarily for the PDP to “make a good showing” in 2027.

“What I believe is that the PDP should now begin to put its house in order. It might not be necessarily to make a good showing next year, I mean 2027, because it is very close now,” he said.

Politics

What Buhari Told Me During My Campaign — Peter Obi

Published

15 hours ago

July 17, 2025

Editor

Labour Party Presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Mr Peter Obi, has reminisced about his encounter with the late former Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, during a political campaign.

Obi described the former Nigerian military Head of State and President as a man whose sincere appeal to fight for the poor stood out.

Peter Obi, who was fielding questions from reporters at the Third Day Prayers organised in honour of the late former Nigerian leader, Buhari, said leaders must “learn how to serve our country, knowing that one day we will all be called back by our creator.”

He said, “I had the opportunity of meeting late Muhammadu Buhari while I was campaigning, and I remember his words till today, and he said to me, please care for the poor Nigerians, and that is all I always remember, and I believe he did his best within his capacity.”

On what Nigerians need to learn from late Buhari, Peter Obi said, “We have to all learn how to serve our country, knowing that one day we will all be called back by our creator.”

According to Peter Obi, “Buhari’s sincere appeal for fighting and caring for the poor” is are perfect description of a man who lived a life of simplicity.

President Bola Tinubu and other top dignitaries received the body of the former president Buhari on arrival at the Katsina International airport on Tuesday before leaving for Daura for a state burial.

Muhammadu Buhari died on Sunday in a London hospital after a brief illness. He has since been buried according to Islamic rites in his Daura home amidst tears from thousands of sympathisers who thronged his residence to pay their last respect to the former Nigerian president.