The recently concluded Lagos State Local Government elections, held on Saturday, have sparked widespread outrage among opposition political parties, who have unanimously rejected the results and called for a complete cancellation of the exercise.
The elections, according to the parties, were marred by electoral malpractice, irregularities, and blatant manipulation, making the entire process undemocratic and a “daylight robbery” against the will of the people.
The Lagos State PDP Local Government Chairmen, which has vowed to challenge the election outcome in court.
The Forum’s Chairman and PDP leader in Oshodi-Isolo Local Government Area, Chief Adegboyega Adegbesan, stated during a joint press conference that the PDP would neither accept the results nor recognise the so-called winners declared by the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC).
Chief Adegbesan described the elections as a complete charade, devoid of transparency and credibility. “What transpired on Saturday was not an election but a criminal conspiracy against the sovereign will of Lagosians.
“In PDP strongholds across the state, we witnessed massive ballot box stuffing and bags of pre-thumbprinted ballots being brought in to skew the results.
“In several areas, election materials either arrived very late or not at all, while documentation was intentionally left incomplete to frustrate our supporters and suppress turnout,” he asserted.
Other political parties also denounced the election. The Labour Party (LP), Young Progressives Party (YPP), African Action Congress (AAC), Action People’s Congress (APP), and the Accord Party voiced their discontent during a joint news conference in Lagos.
Pastor Dayo Ekong, the Chairperson of the Labour Party in Lagos State, condemned the election process, labelling it “orchestrated electoral fraud and brazen bias.” In her remarks, delivered by the LP Deputy Chairman, Mr. Olasupo Ajayi, she described the election as a deliberate, state-sponsored assault on democracy.
“The Local Government elections just concluded in Lagos were never about the people’s choice; they were a meticulously plotted charade designed to impose the ruling party’s candidates on the electorate,” she said.
“We witnessed and documented widespread irregularities, all orchestrated by LASIEC. The commission’s credibility has collapsed entirely under the leadership of Justice Bola Ighile, whom we hold personally responsible for this travesty.”
Ekong further declared that the Labour Party is gathering extensive evidence of the electoral misconduct and will exhaust every legal and constitutional avenue to challenge what she termed “this electoral robbery.”
She vowed, “We will not rest until justice is served and the true will of Lagosians is restored. The Labour Party will ensure this daylight robbery does not go unchallenged.”
Similarly, Mr. Olusegun Mobolaji, the Chairman of the YPP in Lagos, criticised the flawed process that preceded the election. He noted that even the electoral timetable was confusing, restrictive, and designed to frustrate opposition parties.
“Some parties only received their nomination forms from LASIEC two days before the election due to unexplained issues. How can such an election be deemed credible?” Mobolaji queried.
Adding to the criticisms, Mrs. Abiola Adeyemi, the State Chairperson of the Action People’s Congress (APP) and Secretary of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), shared her personal ordeal.
She revealed that she was almost attacked by alleged thugs linked to the ruling APC in Badagry for protesting the removal of her party’s logo from the ballot papers in the area.
Echoing these sentiments, Mr. Dele Oladeji, Chairman of the Accord Party in Lagos, accused LASIEC of abandoning its role as an impartial electoral umpire.
“We were not merely contesting against fellow political parties; we were contesting against LASIEC itself. The commission acted more like a player than a neutral referee. What occurred was a systematic rigging strategy that had been set in motion even before election day,” Oladeji said.
In a unified stance, the opposition parties reaffirmed their commitment to seeking justice through the courts and other constitutional means. They vowed to resist the subversion of democracy in Lagos State and pledged to continue the fight until the genuine will of the people is recognised and respected.