By Olanrewaju Adesanya
Hon. Sola Osolana, the Peoples Democratic Party’s chairmanship candidate for Agege Local Government in the recently concluded council polls, has noted that voter apathy recorded in the locality are clear cut signs that the All Progressives Congress has lost touch with governance at the grassroots.
Osolana, who showed a deep understanding of the political permutations in Agege, noted with dismay, that politics in the real sense has been bastardized in the area, given the repressive tendencies exhibited by the powers that be.
“If you want a change and you are tired of the way things are done, come out and vote, don’t resign to fate, that we know that they are going to write the results.
“That was what they used to discourage me while leaving APC, they said that don’t go and waste your money, we are going to write the results we are in government, it is APC LASIEC and all sorts.
“I was not deterred and now everybody in Agege knows that the Agege election was stolen, in fact I have achieved majority of the reasons why I joined the race.
“I want to use this medium to tell our people to come out and vote, the election they can rig and manipulate us where people didn’t come out to cast their votes.
According to Osolana, in spite of the presence of highly placed individuals from the area in the state’s polity, their electoral value, coupled with rigging, ballot snatching, intimidation, threat to life, multiple voting and their much trumpeted clout could only pull 6,200 votes, while he singlehandedly polled 4,000.
“It is on record that within a month of my defection to PDP from APC, we were able to dislodge and cage a party with the so called political stakeholders in Agege.
“You will recall that in this local government we have the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa a fifth term lawmaker representing Agege 01 constituency and Hon. Oluyinka Ogundimu a third term lawmaker who represents Agege 02, Professor Babatunde Samuel a GAC member, Chief Safari Adaranijo an APC chieftain, Hon. Babatunde Adejare a member representing Agege Federal constituency at the House of Representatives and host of others.
“All these stakeholders could only muster 6,200 votes from the 200,000 registered voters in Agege and just one month after I left their party, I contested in the PDP to face all those dignitaries and the result was so close, I polled over 4000 votes.
“In fact this local government witnessed what obtains in a general election because all the security apparatus were in Agege, in support of these dignitaries mentioned earlier all against me and what was the margin?
“It just shows that there is a disconnect between the people that are leading us in Agege and the people.
“It shows how tired they are of the people leading us and the system they operate. In Agege I can boldly say that there is no APC, instead they have ‘the movement’ of which if you are not a member, you are in trouble.
“If you are an APC member in Agege and you don’t belong to the movement, you cannot contest, if you checked the Chairman and all councillors are members of the movement.
“In APC for the past three months nobody can say they held a genuine APC meeting in Agege local government, it’s only the movement.
“Although it is none of my business anymore because I have left the party where there is no justice. I know that negates the founding fathers vision, I am aware then that groups of any form have been disbanded and outlawed but the party has been hijacked, that informs the dismal performance of the party in the last local government election.
“Even the result they got is that of rigging and manipulations, during the election, they went to one of my business outfits to arrest the lodgers during the election so that it will destabilise me.
“In the last rerun election I was also unjustly arrested at my unit, while trying to go and vote, so that I will not be present to manage and conduct election properly.
“Even at that although I was in Panti see the result 700 to 1000, you can imagine if I was around to galvanize our people to make sure that we defend our votes.
“Right now my life is being threatened, my businesses in Agege are being attacked and many of my supporters are being served crazy bills by the local government.” Osolana said.
He called on the Governor of the state, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu to take decisive action on this, because once elected he is no longer for his party alone but for everyone in the state.
“I urged Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to address the injustice, those people you are relying on in Agege to deliver for you in 2023 cannot deliver with the result of local government election in Agege. Go and look at my result relating it to other 56 local governments and you will discover there is a disconnect in Agege.
In his view it is so shameful that the political space could be unfairly managed, being the closest rung of the governance ladder to the people.
