Lagos council poll: YPP condemns brazen electoral fraud, calls for cancellation

By Favour Goodness

Young Progressives Party (YPP) has called for the immediate cancellation and prompt re-run of the just concluded Lagos State Local Government election.

Comrade Egbeola Wale Martins, National Publicity Secretary of the party in a statement has condemned the brazen electoral fraud perpetrated by some anti-democratic elements and enabled by the Lagos State (In)dependent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) during the Lagos State Local Government polls conducted on July 24.

According to him, the charade election has further attested to the reason why the APC as a party is vehemently resisting the amendment of the electoral act to ensure electronic transmission of election results, which manifested in the recent show of shame in the National Assembly where the independence of INEC has been compromised after subjecting same to the NCC in gross violation of our constitution.

Read the text of the statement below:

1. We strongly condemn the brazen electoral fraud perpetrated by some anti-democratic elements and enabled by the Lagos State (In)dependent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) during the Lagos State Local Government polls conducted on Saturday, 24th July, 2021.
2. The charade called election that took place in Lagos State on the aforementioned date further attest to the reason why the APC as a party is vehemently resisting the amendment of the electoral act to ensure electronic transmission of election results, which manifested in the recent show of shame in the National Assembly where the independence of INEC has been compromised after subjecting same to the NCC in gross violation of our constitution.
3. There is no better time to reinforce the scrapping of SIECs in the ongoing amendment to the electoral act than now while the responsibility of conducting council polls should be shifted to INEC as the former has left no one in doubt that it is compromised and possesses little or no capacity to conduct a free, fair and credible election at the local level.
4. The Young Progressives Party doesn’t know any other democratic means of taking over the mantle of political leadership except through the ballot, hence our determination to effect a radical leadership change through our ballot revolution initiative.
5. However, we will not hesitate to resist by all means necessary and within the ambit of the law anti-democratic forces masquerading as democrats with a false sense of entitlement that they can steal our electoral mandate, exclude us from the electoral process or intimidate our candidates and supporters through unlawful arrests and state-sponsored violence.
6. The fact that our party was wrongfully excluded in some Local Government Areas from participating in the council polls in violation of Section 138(1) of the Electoral Act when our party’s logo was willfully omitted from the ballot paper in Somolu LGA and misrepresented in some Local Government Areas where we were cleared by LASIEC to participate only exposes an organised electoral crime targeted at our party and her candidates who have identified with the masses in the quest to break the chains of political servitude in Lagos State.
7. Sequel to (6) above, we demand the immediate cancellation and prompt re-run of the just concluded Lagos State Local Government election by LASIEC in areas where our party’s logo has either been willfully excluded or erroneously misrepresented in clear violation of the provisions of the electoral act.
8. Furthermore, like a poorly written amateur script, these enemies of democracy arrested one of our candidates in the person of Comrade Adelana Adesegun a.k.a Aluta in a Gestapo manner, which has been the hallmark of the APC government in the last six years after he lodged a formal complaint at LASIEC over the unlawful exclusion of our party’s logo from the ballot paper.
9. In upholding the fundamental rights of citizens, we call on the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Lagos Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu to order the immediate release of Comrade Adelana Adesegun and other arrested members of our party as any attempt to infringe on their rights and detain them beyond 24hours will be frontally challenged. We will not hesitate to relocate the National Secretariat of our great party to Lagos State if our collective will is tested.
10. In addition, we congratulate one of our councillorship candidates, Omotunde Afolabi Abdulkareem from Orile Agege LCDA who despite the open intimidation won with a landslide of 2,773 votes against his closest rival from the APC who had 1,104 votes thereby winning with an unprecedented margin of 1,669 votes.
11. Conclusively, this victory is a confirmation that we are not rabble-rousers or attention seekers but genuine contenders with the undeniable capacity to defeat the APC in an even political environment. The victory is also a testimony that the people can no longer be deceived or bought.

Signed:

Comrade Egbeola Wale Martins
National Publicity Secretary
Young Progressives Party