Opposition parties in Lagos have voiced strong objections to the outcome of Saturday’s local government elections, which saw the All Progressives Congress (APC) claim near-total dominance at the polls.
Official results released by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) on Sunday revealed that the APC clinched all 57 chairmanship seats and won 375 out of 376 councillorship positions across the state.
Justice Bola Okikiolu-Ighile (retd.), who chairs LASIEC, announced the results at the commission’s headquarters in Sabo, Yaba, confirming the ruling party’s sweep in all 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas.
Despite the APC’s landslide, the opposition recorded a flicker of success in Ward D of the Yaba LCDA, where Babatunde Dosunmu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secured a councillorship seat. Dosunmu, a recent defector from the APC, edged out his former party’s candidate in what has been described as a rare upset.
Reacting to the results on Sunday, Tai Benedict, Deputy Chairman of the PDP in Lagos, expressed scepticism over the scale of the APC’s victory. While commending party supporters for their efforts, he questioned the credibility of the ruling party’s overwhelming win, describing their aggressive campaign tactics as suspect.
He said, “I’m not disappointed in the results. I’m not disappointed at all. We’re going to commend all our candidates in the election for standing tall and making the party proud. And at least, the people will now know the difference between the PDP and the LP. That is for one.
“At the last election, the LP members were claiming that they were more popular than the PDP. I am not disappointed. I know that with the very aggressive campaign (of the APC), we all know what it means.
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“And I kept telling some people that if you calculate this election, all the chairmanship elections in all the 20 LGAs and 30 LCDAs if you calculate it, these kinds of votes they have, is that possible at this point? Is that realistic at this point? We know it is not realistic.”
Benedict noted that the poll was marred by voter apathy, observing that while some people were seen playing football around the polling areas, the figures being announced did not reflect the reality on the ground. He reportedly urged people to look at the chairmanship calculations across the city and compare them to the previous election, arguing that the current figures showed that the system was flawed.
The Labour Party’s Secretary in Lagos, Sam Okpala, was quoted as saying there was no election in the state on Saturday. In an interview, he stated that what happened could not be regarded as an election, describing it as a sham and a rape of democracy, as well as a waste of billions of naira in taxpayers’ money. He questioned how anyone could call it an election when LASIEC officials failed to turn up at almost half of the polling units.
He further alleged that in the areas where elections were conducted, the process was marred by irregularities.
Meanwhile, the African Action Congress, in a statement signed by its chairman, Ayoyinka Oni, called for the cancellation of the local government poll.