Kunle ADELABU, Jare OLUKOTUN & Wale JAGUN
Hon. S.O.B. Agunbiade, the Majority Leader and three term member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, has secured the Ikorodu Constituency I ticket for the Lagos State House of Assembly for the fourth term, while his colleague, Hon. Nurudeen Solaja, also clinched the assembly ticket for Ikorodu Constituency II.
Both sitting lawmakers emerged as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates at the primary elections held on Friday, October 5 in Ikorodu division.
There were large turn-out of party members and heavy presence of security agents in centres visited by our reporters in Ikorodu Constituency I.
According to the result signed by Barr. Willaims Kunle Stone, the Returning Officer for Ikorodu Local Government, Hon. Agunbiade polled 15, 463 votes to beat his closest opponent, Mr Mr Toyin Gafaar Bolwotan who polled 2,674 votes.
Mr Nurudeen Agbaje came third with 1, 465 votes and was followed by the former two-term chairman of Ikorodu North Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Hon. Adeola Jokomba who polled 707 votes.
Others were Barr Lekan Ijelu and Mr Yinka Majekodunmi both of whom polled 376 and 315 votes respectively.
Also, large turn-out of party members were recorded at Ipakodo, Agura and Aga/Ijomu voting centres visited by our reporters.
According to the report signed by the Returning Officer for Ikorodu Local Government, Hon. Agunbiade polled 2, 551 votes to defeat is Bolowotan, who polled 107 votes at Isele II centre.
In Isele III, Agunbiade polled 1, 253 votes to beat Bolowotan who scored 78 votes.
In Ipakodo centre, Hon. Agunbiade got 6,002 votes while Bolowotan polled 1,003 votes.
In Agura centre, Hon. Agunbiade and Bolowotan recorded 322 and 76 votes respectively.
The results from Isiu revealed that Agunbiade scored 894 votes while Bolowotan scored 53 votes.
At Aga/Ijomu, Hon. Agunbiade polled 3, 045 votes to Bolowotan’s 1,030 votes.
In Odogunyan, it was Hon Agunbiade who won with 433 votes while Bolowotan polled 174 votes.
Hon. Agunbiade also won at Erikorodo centre Hon. Agunbiade with 250 votes while Bolowotan got 21 votes.
Meanwhile, no result was recorded for all the aspirants in Isele I.
In Ikorodu Constituency II, Hon Nurudeen Saka Solaja was unopposed while votes were cast and recorded for him in the three local councils in the constituency.
He polled 299, 136 and 129 votes in wards C1, C3 and C4 visited by our reporter respectively.
It was also gathered that he polled 430 votes in Ward C2.
Meanwhile, there were some protests at the Ikorodu Local Government collation centre by the supporters of two of the aspirants.
They protested that election did not take place in their wards due to violence.
A protester, Mr Lateef Afinni, told THE IMPACT that election did not take place in his ward at Ward E and F, while adding that he cannot speak for other centres.
Mr Tosin Mabunmi, an agent of Bolowotan also protested that election did not take place at his pooling station
In a reaction by a member of the electoral committee, he stated that elections were actually conducted in all the centres in Ikorodu Constituency I except in one centre.
He added that there was initial problem as some members of the party insisted that they must be allowed to vote with their slips against the party’s directive that only members with the party’s permanent membership card should be allowed to participate in the election.
“We had initial problem in some centres due to the insistence of some members to vote with their slips but it was later resolved and the party’s membership card was used and the elections went well and peacefully afterwards in all centres except one”, he clarified.
Ikorodu Local Government APC Chairman, Alhaji Taiwo Longe was also seen asking protesters to make a formal complaint of their grievances.
The electoral officers had to vacate the main council hall for another office when they were hinted about an attempt by some protesters to hijack the electoral materials.
At 3.20pm, some supporters of an aspirant were seen protesting at the council secretariat and the Divisional Police Officer of the Ipakodo Police Division quickly intervened by asking them to move some metres away from the collation centre.
Also, the Area Commander of Area N Police Station arrived at 3.39pm to add to the security personnel on ground while another set of protesters arrived at 3.48pm insisting on gaining entrance to the hall but were prevented by the police officers on ground.
At 4.20pm, an aspirant, Mr Nurudeen Agbaje, arrived the collation centre to see what was going on by himself. He was also seen conversing with the party chairman, Alhaji Longe and other electoral officers.
He was later seen outside the hall discussing with Hon. Adeola Jokomba, another aspirant who arrived at 4. 28pm.
At around 5pm, protesters, who had been driven out of the council premises, started throwing stones and other objects at the police officers who responded by shooting into the air which forced the protesters to scampered for safety.
The police officers, thereafter, positioned themselves at strategic places and also carried out checks on every human and vehicular movements in and out of the council premises.
Our reporter, who left the council premises to see what was going on outside, was also prevented from gaining entrance but was later allowed to enter after he was cleared by Mr Ohuruogo, the Ikorodu Divisional Police Officer (DPO).
Another aspirant, Mr Toyin Gafar Bolowotan, arrived the collation centre at 5.19pm.
He exchanged pleasantries with the electoral and party officials as well as police personnel and members of the press on ground.
Mr Yinka Majekodunmi, another House of Assembly aspirant, also arrived at 5.23pm and was also seen exchanging pleasantries with those on ground.
At 5.32pm, the Ikorodu DPO was seen coordinating the movement of the electoral officers as they prepared to leave the council premises and at exactly 5.35pm, two police vans with armed security personnel escorted the Returning Officer, party chairman and other members of the committee out of the council secretariat en route party secretariat in Ikeja.
