APC Primary: Protest rocks Somolu over alleged imposition of Reps candidate

Demonstrators marched around major streets in the Somolu/Bariga axis of Lagos on Sunday, protesting alleging fraud in the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary to elect the House of Representatives’ candidate for the federal constituency.

The protesters alleged that the APC Electoral Committee was trying to impose an unpopular aspirant having failed to conduct the primary as scheduled.

They displayed placards with different inscriptions such as; “Let’s go for primary, ours can’t be different at Somolu”; “Somolu says Olowo again 2023”; “Somolu Unites for Olowo Rotimi”.

One of the delegates at the primary, Malik Olawale, told journalists during the protest that the primary election was not held.

“We were at the local government secretariat to vote as delegates on the supposed day of primary election,” he claimed, “election didn’t not take place.”

He added: “The electoral officer said there was a mix up in the electoral materials, on that note, he said the election would not be held. He then promised to send the same report to the concerned authority.

“So, it was obvious they didn’t want the primary to be held. They know if we go to the field, our candidate Hon. Rotimi Olowo will beat them, that is why they are afraid of the primary.”

Oluremi Doherty from ward D Somolu  while appealing to the party’s leadership to allow people choose who to represent them said there was no primary election and Hon. Ademoorin Kuye’s name must not be forwarded as the candidate of the party If they wanted peace to reign in Somolu.

APC had scheduled the House of Reps and Assembly primary election to be held in the state on Thursday, May 26.

However, the primary election did not hold in places like Somolu and Amuwo- Odofin, prompting a shift to the next day.

While other constituencies eventually had their election on Friday, there was no election in Somolu.

Meanwhile, while no primary election was conducted, Somolu residents alleged that the name of the incumbent representative, Ademoorin Kuye, is already being bandied around as the winner of the supposed primary election.