Kunle Adelabu
-Residents blame party leaders
Following the protest by members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at Ikorodu Local Government on Friday, over what they alleged as failure of the party leaders to pay their entitlements for the last election, the party has appealed to them for patience.
There has also been widespread condemnation by residents of Ikorodu accusing the party leaders of being insensitive towards their members.
A video of the protest posted on Saturday (yesterday) went viral on social media with protesters lamenting what they termed ill – treatment and threatened not to leave the council secretariat unless their money is paid.
Some of the protesters threatened to boycott the Governorship and State Assembly elections slated for March 18.
But in a reaction by the APC Divisional Publicity Secretary, Mr Femi Adinlewa, he appealed to the protesting members, stating that the delay was caused by network issues.
He said that a committee headed by Ogboni Fuad Oki, the Secretary of the State Campaign structure, is responsible for the payment and not the leadership of the party in Ikorodu.
“Those in charge of their payment is a committee headed by Fuad Oki. They are to pay them 10k each”, Adinlewa explained to our reporter.
“Their bank account details have been collected, we are appealing to them to still exercise more patience because the banking network is slow, according to the committee members from the state”, he added.
Mr Hassan Ekundayo, a lecturer and APC member, while speaking on THE IMPACT platform on the protest, did not spare the leadership of the party at all as he blamed them for the plight of the party’s agents.
“These people should be paid directly by the party involved. Why pay them through leaders that will swindle them?
“Awon elebi party leaders. The party hierarchy is culpable. It is not new to them that these ‘jegudujeras’ will always shortchange the canvassers”.
A social media commentator, Mr Henry Gbenga, said that the postponement of the election by a week was the saving grace for the candidates of the party.
“The postponement was God’s way of giving them a second chance. If they don’t fix up the errors on ground, ‘ina ma dun lara won’ (the electoral consequences will be devastating)”, he said.
“The wave is still very much intact”.
Arinola Okeowo, in her own view, said that she expected that the next local government election in the state would take the dimension of the present electoral process to bring sanity back into the APC fold.
“Only if Local Government elections can go through this process too. Let me see one leader that will come and impose his cousin or great grandpa’s niece”, she said.
“The power has gone back to the people and these so-called leaders need to understand it”.
Also lamenting on one of the ‘Sanwo – Olu Continuity’ platform, one Famuyibo strongly condemned what he termed denial of his right/benefits and others by leadership of the party.
He said that those responsible for the payment will witness the fierce judgment of God if they refuse to pay him and others that worked for the party.
