Kunle Adelabu
It was a disappointment day for aspirants contesting for both Ikorodu Constituency I and II seats on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the primary elections failed to hold on Thursday, May 26, 2022.
It was gathered that the same development played out across other 38 primary election venues in the state.
The elections which were scheduled to hold at the Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area secretariat for the Constituency I and Mikson Onas Hall in Igbogbo for the Constituency II, failed to hold because the electoral officials and materials did not arrive, though, there were heavy security presence at both centres.
Many of the aspirants that arrived early at the centres for the primaryelection had to leave in disappointment with their delegates after waiting for hours.
Also on ground were INEC officials.
At the venue of the primary election in Igbogbo, where our reporter saw virtually all the aspirants, only Mr Oluwatosin Onamade waited till around 6pm in the evening.
Our reporter, who left the venue when it was about to rain, left Onamade, his supporters and few other party members at the venue .
Many of them expressed dissatisfaction and disappointment over the failed primary.
Onamade, addressing reporters at the venue, said that he arrived the venue 30minites before the time stipulated by the party but was disappointed that the election did not eventually hold.
He said that it was gathered that the national secretariat of the party was yet to release a particular material needed for the conduct of the election.
“The information given to us by our political party, APC, was that all the aspirants should report at the venues by 12pm on Thursday (yesterday). As a matter of fact, I have been here since 11.30am and as we can see, it’s past 5pm and nothing is happening here at the official venue of the primary election”, the aspirant said.
“This is so sad and very bad. We have been here since morning and have been calling all over places.
“We have been calling the Lagos State secretariat of the APC and authorities concerned to really know what is really going on concerning the delay.
“They were saying that material is not being given to them as at 5pm and we have not even seen the presiding officers”, Onamade said.
“If you look all over the place, we have security men all over and we believe that there will be peace during the election but there is no materials to conduct the election.
“Our delegates who are supposed to vote for us have been leaving because they have kids and family to cater for at home”.
Further expressing his disappointment, Onamade said that they expected the party, which is a national party, to be more organised.
“We believe that our party is a national party that should be coordinated.We didn’t expect all these from the party. We are highly disappointed”, he said.
“As a matter of fact, we are still waiting to see whether something is still going to be done.
“I think that there might be some issues attached because when I called a superior officer in Abuja, they were telling us that there is a particular document needed for the election which has not been given to them”, he said.
“This shows that the primary election will not be conducted but as an aspirant, I must abide with the directive of our party and we are still staying till the evening. We are still waiting for the signal from the party”, Onamade added.
Some of the party members at the venue told our reporter that they have no idea why the elections failed to hold.
Meanwhile, it has been rumoured that the elected has been rescheduled for today.
