By Bilesanmi Abayomi
The recently concluded House of Assembly election in Kosofe constituency 1, Lagos State, witnessed an unexpected turn of events as the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Lanre Carew, emerged as the unsung hero of the race.
Initially, Carew had contested for the ticket on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but was dissatisfied with the outcomes of the May 27 primary election. As a result, he joined the SDP and barely entered the race in December 2022, flooding the constituency with his posters and banners.
Despite being a late entrant, Carew gave the ruling party, APC, a run for their money and saved the winner, Hon. Sanni Ganiu Okanlawon, from total defeat by a dark horse candidate of Labour Party (LP), Akinwande Osikominu. Okanlawon beat Osikominu with a slim margin of 86 votes.
Some people believe that if Carew had stepped down, Okanlawon would have recorded close to 18,000 votes. However, others argue that the LP candidate would have won the race outrightly had Carew not been in the race or thrown his weight behind the LP.
Carew, whose soul still remains in the APC, should be seen as the Presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, who affected the chances of PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in becoming president-elect in favor of Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu by winning the entire stronghold of PDP in Southeast. Consequently, Carew through his anti-candidate movement, not anti-party, played a significant role as he garnered the votes of the electorates who were sick and tired of both the APC, PDP, and aggrieved APC members who would have ordinarily voted for the LP candidate.
In the last weekend House of Assembly election, the APC candidate Sanni polled 11,649, Osikominu Akinwande of Labour Party got 11,563 votes, while Lanre Carew of SDP scored 7,242 votes, respectively.
According to sources, Carew is not challenging the winner of the election and might return back to the fold of the APC. However, allowing Carew to form an alliance with Labour Party ahead of the 2025 Local Government election may further pose a big threat to Kosofe APC in particular as the LP emerged as the main opposition party, displacing the People’s Democratic Party.