A Lagos based lawyer, Barr F S Daud has written the governor of Ogun State, Prince Dapo Abiodun asking for his urgent intervention over the replacement of his client, one Osularu Olabanjo Muyiwa who was said to have won the All Progressives Congress (APC) Councilorship primaries for Ward 5, Iperu Remo, the governor’s home town but has now been replaced by one Hon Efuwape Olaitan Muhammed, the incumbent Vice Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Ikenne local government.
Copies of Barr Daud’s petition dated June 28, 2021 and titled “Manipulation of result and unlawful replacement of Mr Osularu Olabanjo Muyiwa, the winner of APC Councilorship primaries for Ward 5, Iperu Remo, Ikenne local government with Mr Efuwape Olaitan Muhammed” were made available to newsmen at Abeokuta, the state capital on Monday.
Copies of the letter were also said to have been sent to the offices of the Deputy governor, the Speaker of the state assembly as well as that of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice.
The lawyer explained that going by the party’s directive to conduct Councilorship primaries ahead of the July 24 local government elections, the members of APC in Ward 5, Iperu Remo on May 20th came out with 21 leaders/ delagates to pick the councilorship candidate for the ward.
Barr. Daud explained that though there were initially seven aspirants but four of them later stepped down leaving three others, Mr Bakare Abolore, Waheed Osinaike and Osularu Olabanjo Muyiwa in the race.
He said Mr Efuwape Olaitan Muhammed, a former councilor for the ward and serving Vice-Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the local government was one of the aspirants that stepped down and was therefore honoured to be the Returning Officer, that is, the umpire for the primaries.
At the end of the exercise, Efuwape was said to have announced Osularu Olabanjo Muyiwa with 15 votes as the winner of the primaries while Waheed Osinaike came distant second with four votes and Bakare Abolore came third with no vote.
All the leaders and other aspirants were said to have appended their names and signatures to the document announcing the victory of Osularu Olabanjo Muyiwa while the same was also sent to the appropriate quarters of the party stating that he (Osularu) is the party’s flagbearer for Ward 5, Iperu in the forthcoming local government elections.
Barr Daud disclosed further that his client was however shocked to the marrow when on Thursday, June 24, the list of the councilorship candidates for the forthcoming local government elections surfaced on the social media and rather than his name as the Ward 5 Iperu councilorship candidate, the list bore the name of Mr Efuwape Olaitan Muhammed serving currently as the Vice Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the local government.
The lawyer disclosed further that, though his client had written the state party structure to intervene over this crass corruption and unbearable injustice but nothing has been done.
He said this informed the decision to write the state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun for urgent intervention because the matter was already generating tension at the governor’s hometown and the party members may soon begin to drag themselves to court except the governor intervene on time.
Barr Daud said this unfortunate incident negated the strongly held view of the Supreme Court which says that aspirant who has the highest votes at the end of voting during the party’s primaries is deemed the candidate of such party for the election concerned and his or her name would be sent to the electoral body conducting the election.
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