The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State is smiling to the banks after raking in over N3 billion from sale of forms for local council elections.
At the last count, 500 forms were sold at N5.5m each for 57 chairmanship slots while 1300 bought forms at N1.1m for 377 slots.
Female aspirants and young people for office of chairmanship paid N3m while councilors paid N600,000.
Lagos State has 20 local councils and 37 local council development areas. Council elections are scheduled for July.
The nomination fee for Chairmanship is ₦5,000,000 plus ₦500,000 administrative fee, while female aspirants receive a 50% discount, paying ₦2,500,000 plus ₦500,000 administrative fee.
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Youth aged 40 years and below aspiring for Chairmanship also got a 50% discount plus ₦500,000 administrative fee. Forms are free for Persons with disabilities, with an administrative fee of ₦250,000 only.
While prospective councilorship aspirants must pay ₦1,000,000 plus an administrative fee of ₦100,000, while female aspirants are required to pay ₦500,000 plus ₦100,000 administrative fee.
A 50% discount will be applied to young councillorship aspirants, with an additional ₦100,000 administrative fees.
Purchase of forms began on Wednesday. Aspirants were advised to raise a draft in favor of APC Lagos state. Submission of forms closed o Saturday.
Despite the short notice and time frame over 500 forms was sold for the 57 slots of chairmanship seats while 1300 intending councilors procured forms for the 377 slots available.
The new trend in Lagos now is that most political leaders are imposing their children for chairmanship and councilorship positions. Many party faithfuls are grumbling while a few open protests were recored in some local governments across the state.
Most aspirants are fast loosing trust and confidence in the party they have worked and laboured for claiming reward system is poor. Now they have to cope wwith what members described as”imposition style”.
“Imposing a candidate who has never worked with the party weakens the morale of canvassers, mobilizers, and agents — and that’s dangerous in any election,” one aggrieved party member said.
The most prominent imposition is at Agege local council where the Sppeaker of Lagos House of Assembly, Hon. Mudasiru Obasa has pushed forward his son for the position of chairman.
At Ikorodu Council, the son of Sen. Adeseye Ogunlewe is going for a second term.
Stakeholders concluded by urging the APC leadership at the local and state levels to respect the will of the grassroots, warning that neglecting loyal members in favor of handpicked outsiders may lead to electoral disaster.
Crediblenewsng.com
