The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has set up an Appeal Committee after pockets of protests trailed the party’s Saturday primaries.
The committee is led by the Attorney General of Lagos State and Commissioner for Justice, Lawal Pedro (SAN).
The APC on Saturday held primaries at Ikeja to produce candidates for the 20 local government areas and 30 local council development areas in the forthcoming July 12 LG poll.
However, internal controversy continues to trail the primaries as some aggrieved party members rejected the adoption of consensus to produce candidates.
The Lagos Mainland LGA and Yaba LCDA could not produce candidates at the Saturday primaries as a handful of them took protest to the Ebute Meta area of the state on the day of the primary, rejecting consensus candidates.
The primaries, however, produced 55 other candidates through consensus and voting by delegates.
Despite the primaries, a pocket of protests has also erupted in some local councils where some aggrieved APC members faulted the process of the primaries.
Following these, the party’s spokesperson, Oluseye Oladejo, in a Monday statement, said sequel to the “successful” conduct of the primaries, the party had “inaugurated an Appeal Committee to look into pockets of protests from dissatisfied aspirants who participated in the exercise.”
He said, “The committee is made up of Mr. Lawal Pedro, SAN, who is also the Attorney General and Honorable Commissioner for Justice in Lagos State, and Otunba Abiodun Olufowobi as Secretary.
“Other members are Rt. Hon. Jokotola Pelumi, a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, a former member of the House and state secretary of the party, Hon. Lanre Ogunyemi, and Chief Chukwudi Adiukwu.”
“We, hereby, advise discontented aspirants to submit their appeals to the committee not later than 12 pm on Tuesday, May 13, 2025.”
In another statement obtained on Monday, some APC faithful in Bariga and Somolu decried the conduct of the primaries.
Speaking under the umbrella of Concerned Stakeholders, they demanded the cancellation of the exercise, while seeking the intervention of President Bola Tinubu.
In the statement, the protesting members claimed that the exercise was allegedly “skewed to achieve a pre-determined outcome.”
The statement signed by Aisha Lawal and David Balogun on behalf of others, read in part, “We demand that the National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the National Working Committee, and the Lagos State APC leadership immediately investigate this travesty and cancel the compromised elections in Somolu Local Government and Bariga LCDA.”
The protesters also alleged over-voting and demanded a probe.
“We reject the outcome of the Bariga and Somolu APC chairmanship primaries in totality.
“We assert that no amount of intimidation, manipulation, or rigging will force us to support unpopular, imposed candidates.
“We call on respected leaders such as Senator Anthony Adefuye, Senator Abiru, Hon. Ademorin Kuye, Hon. Adeyemi Oluwole and other true democrats to rise and defend the integrity of our party.”
The Electoral Committee Chairman of the APC, Babatunde Ogala, SAN, on Sunday, denied that the party leaders imposed candidates for the LG poll.