A member of the House of Representatives representing Ikeja Consistency 1, Lagos, Hon. Abiodun James Faleke, is in the eye of the storm. The Kogi former deputy governorship candidate is being accused of trying to foist on the people of Ojodu Local Government a chairmanship candidate in the forthcoming July election, Mr. Julius Oloro.
An insider confided in this magazine that the Ojodu Council executives of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were protesting the choice of Oloro whose name was listed last week when LAISEC released the guidelines for the election.
Meanwhile, one of the party executives has spoken in defense of Hon. Faleke. The party man, who didn’t want his name in print for security reason, quoted Faleke as saying that he was working on the instruction allegedly given by the national leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Faleke reportedly told the executives that Asiwaju Tinubu instructed party leaders in charge of Lagos councils to ensure that 19 former chairmen who spent only one term in office should be returned unopposed and without primaries.
But the Lagos APC chairman, Chief Henry Ajomale, reportedly denied this, according to another source. The source claimed that Ajomale stated that “such action is not accommodated in the APC constitution as there must be a primary and party members must be allowed to decide who they want as their representative in any office.”
This reporter called Hon. Faleke’s phone number but it was switched off and the SMS message sent to the same number was still pending at press time.
However, it was also alleged that the Ojodu APC youth group was threatening to give its support to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) during the forthcoming election if the perceived anomaly remains.
-Arthur Richard
