12th April, 2014
The All Progressives Congress’, APC, ward congress in Coker Aguda/Orile Local Council Development Area, LCDA, turned bloody, again, Saturday, 12 April, causing the death of a middle-aged man, simply referred to as Ewe.
An eyewitness told this medium that the deceased was stabbed by a member of a gang of thugs allegedly brought into the congress venue at Sanya Grammar School, on Apapa Oshodi Expressway, by an aspirant.
The congress reportedly erupted into a battleground due to the resistance by dissenting members to an alleged attempt by Ms Bolanle Akinyemi-Obe, chairperson of the council, to install her favoured candidates into the available offices.
A party member, who preferred anonymity said the violent congress followed an emergency meeting called last Thursday, 10 April, by party leaders to fine-tune modalities for the congress and appeal to belligerent members.
Though it was meant to be a peace meeting, the parley which held in the house of the APC’s supreme leader for the LCDA, Colonel R. A Ajala at Somosun Street, Aguda, later turned violent. One of the big casualties of the day was a former Chairman of the council, now, member representing Surulere Constituency II in the House of Representatives, Aliyu Kazeem, whose Mercedez Benz 4MATIC sports utility vehicle’s, SUV, windshield was vandalised. Kazeem was also said to have sustained an injury to his head due to an attack by suspected thugs.
Sequel to this, the party leaders,11 April, called another meeting it tagged a consensus meeting, meant to streamline the candidates to a fewer number. At the meeting, which lasted over 8 hours, the leaders were said to have appealed to the two prominent contestants for the party’s local government area office, Comrade Dandala and Alhaji Wasiu Salmon to agree between themselves, as well as their sponsors to reduce the tension the election had engendered. The alternative, the leaders said, was for both aspirants to step down for a neutral candidate, to which the LCDA Chairman, Akinyemi-Obe reportedly disagreed. She was said to have vowed that the congress would hold today.
As a result, the party leaders, as well as other APC top notchers in the LCDA were said to have avoided the congress, while other dissenters came to forestall the what they perceived was the planned imposition of a candidate on them.
A call to Kazeem was unsuccessful as his telephone rang away without a response, while a text message sent to Akinyemi-Obe also did not elicit a response.
A source at the council told us that Akinyemi-Obe would not be available for comment because she was having a high society party at the Oriental Hotel, Lekki, for her son, Kelvin, who wedded his Malaysian heartthrob, Tala, today.