24th October, 2011
The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN has won by landslide the Chairmanship and Councillorship elections held in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria at the weekend.
In the results announced officially by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC this evening, the ACN won all the Chairmanship seats in the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs of the state.
Announcing the result, LASIEC Chairman, Retired Justice Adeyinka Abdulfatai said the ACN satisfied the provisions of the LASIEC law and had emerged victorious in the polls being disputed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
He disclosed that the ACN also won 355 councillorship seats out of the 376 seats contested while the PDP won 18 seats and the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, won two seats while the councillorship election for Ward H in Mushin Local Government was inconclusive.
Abdulfatai stated that details of the breakdown of the results would made available to newsmen tomorrow while the details would also be displayed at LASIEC’s office, the 20 LGs and 37 LCDAs.
He also disclosed that 28 parties contested the council polls; 250 candidates for the chairmanship position and 1,145 candidates for the councillorship position.
Abdulfatai appeared to have shot himself in the leg when he said that once the returning officer for any local government had declared the results of the poll, he did not have the power to nullify it, adding that the LASIEC office only receive the results already declared by the returning officers.
When confronted with the question that it was captured on tape when a LASIEC official in Badagry Local Government announced the PDP candidate winner, the LASIEC boss could not provide an answer, saying that anyone aggrieved should go to the electoral tribunal set up by the Chief Judge of the state to handle such petitions.
“Aggrieved parties should go to tribunal for redress. The Chief Judge has set up election appeal tribunal because there is likelihood that some might want to go to court to seek redress,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Elders’ Council of the PDP has accused the ACN and LASIEC of alleged manipulation of the election.
Commenting on the outcome of the council polls, the State Chairman of the Elders’ council, Dr Oluyomi Finnih described the conduct of the polls as unsatisfactory.
“We find it very important to react to the regrettable handling of the local government elections conducted last Saturday by the LASIEC in collaboration with the Lagos state government. We want to state that the process has not been satisfactory, a development which portends danger for our democracy.
“As widely reported in the media, the election was marred by noticeable abuses through rigging and violence. Yet, we are pleased that Lagosians who are hard hit by the poor performance of the local councils did exercise their civic duty by voting for the Peoples Democratic Party.
“This trend was a public knowledge all over the state and we hereby thank these concerned Lagosians who came out to identify with the cause of change. And we are delighted at the results so far released, which affirmed our enthusiasm that Lagosians are ready for change and actually voted for change at the last local government election,” he stated.
Similarly, the PDP alleged that it won the chairmanship election in five councils, namely, Ikoyi/Obalende, Eredo, Shomolu, Agbado Oke-Odo and Badagry Local Government.
By Kazeem Ugbodaga