Aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress from Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area in Lagos State on Saturday protested against the alleged replacement of Dipo Olorunrinu as the APC candidate for the forthcoming council poll.
The protesters, who chanted various solidarity songs at the APC State Secretariat, displayed placards with inscriptions such as “Amuwo voted for Dipo Olorunrinu” and “Dipo Olorunrinu we voted, Dipo Olorunrinu we want.”
NAN reported that the APC had on Friday unveiled the list of chairmanship and vice-chairmanship candidates, which was signed by the party’s Caretaker Committee Chairman, Alhaji Tunde Balogun, and the committee’s Secretary, Mr. Lanre Ogunyemi.
But in place of the previous candidates fielded at the last primaries conducted across the 20 local government areas and the 37 local council development areas on May 29, the party unveiled Olorunrinu and Maureen Ashara as Chairmanship and Vice-chairmanship as the APC candidates of Amuwo-Odofin council respectively.
Consequently, the protesters led by Alhaji Hameed Ayodele urged the party leadership to reconsider its stance on substituting Olorunrinu’s name as earlier announced.
Ayodele said that the group came to the party secretariat to clarify the position of the party leaders on the speculation that Olorunrinu’s name had been substituted to return the incumbent Chairman, Valentine Buraimoh.
“We are here to make a statement that needed serious attention. We contested the election on May 29 for chairmanship and councillorship positions in our local government-Amuwo Odofin, under the platform of APC.
“In spite of all attacks, we tried to be peaceful and at the end of the day, Hon. Dipo Olorunrinu, our symbol, won the APC chairmanship ticket when the party finally made the pronouncement and declared that he was the winner.
“It is so unfortunate that after this, we are hearing that his name has been substituted for the current chairman to return to office.
“We have the name of Dipo Olorunrinu released as winner of the primary, we want it to remain like that. We don’t want anything to upturn this mandate given to him. We want fair election and good democracy,” Ayodele said.
