Concerned leaders in Ojokoro Local Council Development Area of Lagos State have protested to both the state’s All Progressives Congress and the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, alleging age falsification by the party’s chairmanship candidate for the area.
The leaders, under the aegis of Ojokoro Progressives Platform (OPP) have alleged in their petition that the current Ojokoro LCDA chairman, Mr. Idowu Tijani, falsified his age and that the scenario may give the opposition party an edge in the event of post-election litigations.
In the petition signed by the group’s president, Alhaji Kola Adeyemi, and secretary, Mrs. Titi Alfred, and addressed to the state’s APC Chairman, Mr Tunde Balogun, and LASIEC chairman, Justice Ayotunde Phillips (rted), the group called for an urgent inquest.
“Tijani, having sworn to an oath, and with available evidence, falsified his claimed age, differently at various times,” the group averred.
“Wherein in 1998, he contested the position of Councillor in Ward J, Ifako Ijaiye Local Government, Tijani claimed age 31, having been born on the 16th of October, 1967.
“In 2017, when he contested the position of chairman of Ojokoro Local Council Development Area, he once again claimed the date of birth of previous years that was 16th of October, 1967 and was now aged 50.
“But while filling the LASIEC forms, Tijani has again claimed to be 43 years old having sworn on oath, falsifying his age with 11 years’ reduction,” the group alleged.
It thus advised both the state’s APC and the LASIEC to pull Tijani out of the race as a way of holding the sanctity of both the party and the electoral body, respectively.
“Falsification of age, according to the Nigerian constitutional laws, albeit the electoral laws, is, without doubt, a weighty atrocity.
“It will be unbecoming of a national political party of acclaimed progressives like The All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, under the leadership of Barrister Tunde Balogun, a lawyer of years of experience and a politician who knows the implications of this grievous allegation on the party, therefore, not to act in time.
“Meanwhile, the electoral umpire too, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) under the able chairmanship and supervision of Honourable Justice Ayotunde Phillips, should do the needful and not allow their image to be soiled by looking away from this allegation,” the group demanded.
All efforts by our correspondent to get Tijani’s reaction proved abortive, as his cellphone was switched off, while in his office, officials said he had travelled.