Stakeholders in Kosofe Federal Constituency of Lagos State on Wednesday, cutting across religious, ethnic and professional backgrounds, denounced the All Progressives Congress (APC) primary that produced Mrs Kafilat Ogbara as the party’s flag bearer for the House of Representatives seat, come 2023, declaring that the exercise never held and that the said candidate was imposed on them.
Leaders who spoke at the press briefing, which took place in the Ogudu area of the state, including Bishop Gbenga Ajani, Pastor Julius Ogidan, Musa Nasir, representing the Hausa Community, Alhaji Dauda Osinowo, Dr Adekunle Somiyewo, Mrs Adedoyin, Chief Benson Odede, representing Igbo Community, Mrs Glory Towomade, among others, maintained their support for the incumbent House of Representatives member, Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye, who applauded his contributions to the constituency and the people, urging the party to cancel the primary, and conduct a fresh one for the sake of fairness, equity and justice in line with democratic practice.
This was just as they hinted a planned protest would hold on Thursday, which would see them and residents marching from Kosofe down to the APC Secretariat on Acme Road to express their feeling, and call for rejection of what they called “selection” of candidate in the constituency.
Speaking on the matter, Bishop Ajani, who recalled that the party in the constituency actually conducted a congress on May 15, 2022 to elect its delegates, pointed stated that what took place that led to the emergence of Ogbara was a selection and against the rule of democracy, adding: “We can’t allow anything consensus or selection.”
“We are are to tell them that we are elites, we would not take it, we would not take it.
“We are going to ACME to tell them that Agunsoye is our man. He has just spent seven years, and you are making noise. We wouldn’t take it, we wouldn’t take it.
“Agunsoye has done well, we don’t have any problem with him,” he said.
Pastor Ogidan, in his own remark, said the residents of Kosofe were peace loving and did not want crisis, which he noted had led to killings in some places as a result of imposition of candidate, declaring that Agunsoye was coming back for a third term, having delivered a lot of dividends of democracy.