By Emeagi Emeka Williams
ON 28th June, marked the peak of the revolutionary crusade of the get great people of Igando/Ikotun LCDA targeted at stopping the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Lagos state from actualising their covert plan to subvert the collective electoral decision of the electorate of the council area by attempts to impose an unpopular, infamous and unwelcome Ahmed Olajide Oseni.
The latest protest train took the multi tribe gathering to Bourdillon, the residence of the APC National Leader and strongman, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
At the abode of Tinubu where a letter of protest, demand and request was delivered subsequently by the leader of the group, Comrade Eniola Badmus, solidarity songs and chants of loyalty to the “Jagaban” rented the air as men of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos state police command watched keenly, even as APC youths, Yoruba, Arewa, Ndigbo, the South South groups, as well as market leaders, men and women, in turns condemned any act capable of breeding crises in Igando/Ikotun, a place they termed ever peaceful, before the sudden appearance of Oseni.
Comrade Eniola Badmus in fielding questions from Timeswatch correspondents, declared that the protest was sparked by the rumour credited to the APC party helmsman, Chief Akodu, a former Executive Vice Chairman of the council. Oseni said that it was rumoured that Olajide Oseni and his cohorts allegedly bribed the APC state caretaker chairman, Tunde Balogun with the sum of 25million naira to alter the result of the primary election distinctly won by Comrade Lasisi Ayinde Akinsanya and published.
‘We the people of the LCDA will never tolerate any attempt to give a clinched mandate to an Oseni who merely scored 300 juxtaposed to Akinsanya’s over 3000 votes.
“More over, Olajide Oseni is a gun wielding, intolerant, hot tempered politician who only arrived Igando/from nowhere six months ago”, Badmus lamented.
In similar vein, another party stalwart, Hon.Bukola Soaga Bada, a one time Lagos assembly aspirant, condemned the clandestine arrangement to elevate a man she termed temperamental, deadly and indiscipline over and above grounded, disciplined, tested and trusted loyal Akinsanya and others, describing such plans as an insult to the party and the people, emphasising that as one of the officials at the polling unit where Olajide Oseni was supposed to vote, she never saw Oseni cast a vote for self.
Bada used the medium to demand for gender consideration in the political calculations of the council.
Igbo leaders in APC led by Mrs.Success Ebube and Prince Ken Onyeagba, together with their counterpart from the South South, Princess Ngozi Okocha, all expressed unmitigated solidarity for Akinsanya.
Others who spoke in conformity include the Iyaloja of Obadore, Hon.Shade Balogun and Woman Leader, Igando Ward E, Adeyeye Simiat.
Leader of the Arewa community at the protest, Mohammed Usman, stressed that he had lived in Egan for over 30 years and had never known Olajide Oseni who claims to hail from there.
When the protest train left Tinubu’s home after peaceful but vehement displays, it returned to the council area and landed at the party secretariat and homes of strategic party leaders such as Akodu and Enilolobo where they also registered their grievances, asking for immediate return of the statusquo.