Scores of protesters yesterday stormed the office complex of Somolu Local Government Area, thereby preventing staff of the council from gaining access into the Secretariat.
The protesters numbering over 100 were seen carrying placards with various inscriptions written on them, as they also chanted different protest songs to drive home their point.
The protest, according to their spokesman, Femi Oluwole, was to show their displeasure over the recent list released by the All Progressives Congress in Lagos containing the names of candidates for the positions of Chairman and Vice Chairman for the forthcoming local government election scheduled for July 24.
Oluwole told journalists that the residents and APC supporters in Somolu are aggrieved that the party included the name of their incumbent Chairman, Abdul Hamed Salawu, popularly referred to as ‘Dullar’ in the list against the wish of the people.
According to him, “Everyone in Somolu has made it known that they no longer want Salawu as the Chairman, he has done a term and he failed us. Go around and sample the opinion of the people, they would tell you that Dullar failed woefully. So why should such a person go for another term?
“Moreover, we don’t know how the party arrived at his name. This is a man that didn’t allow the primary to hold in the local government, he single-handedly canceled the primary just because he knew was not going to win. So how come his name appeared on the list? The APC leadership must do the needful by conducting another primary election in Somolu.
The choice of the people is the incumbent Vice Chairman in the person of Mr. Bowale Sosimi. Five aspirants showed interest from the beginning and three of them adopted Sosimi as their consensus. But because Salawu knew he would be beaten in the primaries, he didn’t allow the primary election to be held in the local government and somehow, he bought his way into the list.
“We, as stakeholders in Somolu will not allow this injustice to stand and that is why we are taking over the local government secretariat and that is how we will continue to do every morning until the party organises another primary in Somolu,” Oluwole added.
Some of inscriptions on their placards include: “No Dullar for second term”, “Dullar Must Go”, “Bowale is the people’s Mandate”, “Heaven did not fall when leaders asked Bowale to give it to Dullar in 2017, so the same should happen now”, “Dullar is unpopular and no longer accepted by the people”, “Worst case scenario, a rerun should be done”, “Dullar should stop using our collective resources to look for nothing”, “Somolites want a truthful, sincere and popular leader”, “The people will continue to demand for their mandate”, among others.
