Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC), has given an indication that its current list of chairmanship and councillorship candidates for the July 24 local government election may not be final.
The party’s spokesman in the state, Mr. See Oladejo, told newsmen yesterday that there is an appeal committe currently looking at complaints against the emergence of some candidates.
The committee, he said, was still sitting and changes could still be made.
“After the primaries, we set up an electoral appeal committee to entertain petitions from aggrieved aspirants and there were places where primaries were disrupted and since we were pressed for time, the option was not to do a fresh primary but for leaders in the affected places to sit down and reach consensus on who would be candidates.
“The alternative would have been for our party not to have candidates which would not be acceptable to us.
“So, after they appear before the committee or reach consensus, there could be changes based on the decisions of the appeal committee or consensus and as it is, the appeal committee is still sitting; so they haven’t completed their assignments,” he disclosed.
Findings have, however, shown that some names of candidates were surreptitiously replaced in the list published by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC).
It was gathered that several of those who won the primary and were so declared, had their names replaced with those of persons who lost the May 29 contest.
In the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area, for example, Mr. Dipo Olorunrinu, a former member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, was declared winner of the local government chairmanship primary and was presented with the LASIEC form which was filled and published.
Maureen Ashara was named as the winner of the Vice Chairmanship seat while for councillorship, Olulade Temitope, was named winner of Ward A1 Eko Akete.
In A2 Odofin ward, Oreofe Elliot was declared winner and in Ward K Ifelodun (FESTAC III), Egobi Osagie-Daniel emerged victorious.
In Ward C Orire (FESTAC II), Ahmed Mohammed was declared winner while in B1 Irepodun (FESTAC IA), Anuoluwapo Adeosun emerged as winner. In B2 Ado (FESTAC IB), Idowu Saidat emerged victorious and in J Tomaro/Ilado ward, Iwakun Oluwafemi was the winner.
However, it was learnt that four of the victorious candidates were mysteriously dropped when the final list was published by LASIEC.
The winner of the local government chairmanship primary, Olorunrinu, was dropped and his name was substituted with Valentine Buraimoh, who is the current chairman of the local government.
Another winner of the councillorship primary, Adeosun, was replaced with Abimbola Oshodi while Osagie-Daniel was replaced by Ajide Fatai and Oluwafemi was substituted with Kiki Emmanuel.