By APC DISOWNS ITS RETURNING OFFICER FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTION
Reports reaching BlackBox Nigeria reveals that, the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC has disowned Sen. Tokunbo Afikuyomi as a member of the party both at the state and the national level but a card carrying member of the Accord Party.
In a statement duly signed today, Friday March 1st by Joe Igbokwu, the APC Publicity Secretary, Lagos State chapter, the party disassociated itself from Afikuyomi in view of his alleged clandestine activities to undermine the APC in Lagos which was in order to promote opposition politicians in the process leading to the governorship election.
Also, the party said it was aware of Afikuyomi’s activities and his pretension of being an APC member while he is an Accord Party member who is fully committed to the promotion of interests inimical to APC’s interests.
The rest of the statement reads thus:
“While we believe it is within the rights of Afikuyomi to work for any interests that suit his fancy, we feel obliged to warn faithful & loyal APC members that Afikuyomi is not one of us, contrary to the impression he gives to unsuspecting party members.”
“While we don’t grudge Afikuyomi his rights to choose and work for any platform or candidate of his choice, we warn him to desist from claiming to be a member of our great party and proudly own up to the interest of whomever he is working for. We know Afikuyomi as a member of Accord Party and the Lagos State exco of APC does not know him as one of us as we are aware he has left our party for Accord Party.”
“We therefore alert members of our party and anyone dealing with Afikuyomi to clearly know that he is not a member of APC. We want this notice to be spread among our members in every nook and cranny of Lagos so as to guard against being misled by Afikuyomi and those he is working for.”
“While Lagos APC salutes Lagosians for their impregnable fidelity to APC, we want them to look for impostors and fifth columnists who have promised their masters that they will assist their doomed campaigns and interests by sowing confusion in APC.”
“This disclaimer on Afikuyomi is an effort to dispel such damned efforts. We urge Lagosians to stick firmly with an APC that has served them so well in Lagos and which had gotten a pan-Nigerian renewal of mandate to give the country continued good, honest and fruitful governance for the next four years.”
One will recall that, Tokunbo Afikuyomi who played a pivotal role for the ruling party winning the lion share during the 2017 Local Government election was first elected Senator for the Lagos Central constituency of Lagos State, Nigeria at the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic, running on the Alliance for Democracy (AD) platform. He took office on 29 May 1999.
He was reelected in April 2003, again running as the candidate of AD. He left the party with former Lagos State governor Bola Tinubu to form the Action Congress (AC), which later formed an alliance with other parties in 2014 to become Nigeria current ruling party- All Progressives Congress (APC).
On his role during the Chairman and Councilor elections in Lagos State, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi was the All Progressives Congress Chairman of the Elections Committee.
He was also alleged during that period
by certain sources to have been used by the Party’s hierarchy to impose Chairmen and Councilors on APC members leading to disruption of the party’s primaries at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
