…Describe exercise as a daylight robbery
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Labour Party, LP, Young Progressives Party, YPP, African Action Congress, AAC, Action People’s Congress, APP, and the Accord Party, have called for outright cancellation of Saturday’s Local Government Elections in the state, describing the exercise as undemocratic and “a daylight robbery”.
Recall that the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC, had announced that the All Progressives Congress, APC, won all 57 chairmanship seats and secured 375 of the 376 councillorship positions across the state in Saturday’s election.
In separate media briefings, the Forum of Lagos State PDP Local Government Chairmen vowed to challenge the outcome of Saturday’s council elections in court, alleging subversion of public will.
Chief Adegboyega Adegbesan, Forum Chairman and PDP leader in Oshodi-Isolo LGA, who briefed newsmen, Tuesday, at the PDP Secretariat in Lagos Mainland LGA and attended by party chairmen and state chieftains, said: “What occurred on Saturday was no election. It was a charade and a criminal conspiracy against the people’s sovereign will.”
He declared that the PDP would not recognise the “fraudulent election” or its “alleged winners”, describing the process as deeply compromised and undemocratic.
Adegbesan added that the PDP had compiled video recordings, testimonies, and evidence of irregularities to legally challenge the election and retrieve its stolen mandate.
He accused the APC-led government and Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) of colluding to rig the elections through orchestrated violence and manipulation.
According to him, armed thugs brazenly attacked polling units, snatched ballot boxes, and beat voters while security agents and LASIEC officials stood by silently.
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“In PDP strongholds across the state, ballot box stuffing occurred at a massive scale. Pre-thumbprinted ballots were delivered in bags,” he said.
He claimed that LASIEC officials either did nothing or aided those trying to legitimise fraudulent votes and suppress genuine voter expression.
“In some LGAs, PDP agents were assaulted, chased away, and denied access to collation centres,” he added.
He stated that figures were crudely manipulated, with votes in some wards exceeding the number of registered voters on record.
“In many areas, election materials arrived late or not at all, and documentation was deliberately incomplete to frustrate PDP supporters and reduce turnout,” he said.
He said LASIEC had lost its moral and constitutional right to act as a neutral electoral umpire, due to widespread irregularities.
Adegbesan called on the National Assembly to protect grassroots democracy and enact policies to stop systemic electoral sabotage in local elections.
“This issue goes beyond PDP. It is about justice, fairness, and the future of democracy in Nigeria.
“If we ignore this injustice, we risk normalising rigging and silencing voters permanently,” he warned.
He declared that the PDP was committed to fighting for electoral integrity and restoring the people’s voice in Lagos governance.
Alhaji Isiaka Shodiya, PDP chairman in Alimosho LGA, also demanded the scrapping of state electoral commissions to preserve grassroots democracy.
Mr Alade Yusuf, PDP councillorship candidate for Ward F in Yaba LCDA, alleged that no collation occurred at his ward before a result was declared.
“We demand the total cancellation of the Ward F election and a fresh poll with proper security and civil society monitoring,” Yusuf said.
In a separate, the leaders of Labour Party, Young Progressives Party, African Action Congress, Action People’s Congress, and the Accord Party in Lagos said that the election conducted by Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) was full of irregularities, while also disenfranchised many opposition candidates.
Speaking, Pastor Dayo Ekong, LP State Chairman, decried what she termed “orchestrated electoral fraud and brazen bias” in the council elections.
Ekong, whose address was read by her deputy, Mr Olasupo Ajayi, described the exercise as a systematic state-sponsored rape of democracy.
“The just-concluded Local Government elections were not an exercise in democratic choice; they were a premeditated, meticulously executed charade designed solely to impose the ruling party’s will upon the people of Lagos.
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“We witnessed, and documented, widespread irregularities orchestrated by LASIEC. We utterly reject the fraudulent results declared by LASIEC in the affected LGAs.
“We hold Justice Bola Ighile personally responsible for this travesty and the complete collapse of LASIEC’s credibility under her watch
“Our resolve is unwavering.We are compiling exhaustive evidence of these atrocities.
“We will explore every legal and constitutional avenue available to challenge this electoral robbery.
“We will not rest until justice is served and the will of the people of Lagos is respected. The Labour Party will not allow this daylight robbery to stand unchallenged,” Ekong said.
She frowned at absence of essential voting materials like ballot papers, result sheets, and even ballot boxes in many local government areas.
Similarly, Mr Olusegun Mobolaji of the YPP, who described the process that led to the polls as flawed, added that over 100 candidates of various political parties were disenfranchised over alleged LASIEC’s rigidity.
Mobolaji, the immediate past Chairman of the State chapter of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, said that logos of some political parties, including that of YPP, APP and LP, were omitted in some local governments.
The former IPAC boss said snatching of ballot boxes, secret relocation of some polling units from their official places and clandestine results collation ,and other electoral law’s violation characterised the polls.
“The process that led to this poll was full of irregularities and anomalies; even the timetable was contradictory, tedious, choky and unbearable for opposition parties
“Some parties got nomination forms from LASIEC two days to the election because of some issues, how can we ascribe credibility to such an election?
“As we speak, there are a lot of forms paid for by candidates: N150,000 for Chairmanship Candidates, N25,000 for Vice Chairmanship Candidates, and 50,000 for councillorship candidates that LASIEC did not take back from us,” he said.
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According to him, all appeal letters written to LASIEC, the governor, the State House of Assembly and Commissioner of Police and department of State Security were not given attention.
“It even took many appeals and protests before the commission could take political party agents lists, and their tags were not ready until the eve of the election.
“As at 9.pm on the eve of the election, YPP was still at LASIEC headquarters to get agent tags and this had to be distributed by the party all over the state for election holding the following day.
“Out of over 3, 000 tags we were supposed to get , we were given only 310 . It was not an election.When we complained, LASIEC said we should go and do photocopies Friday night.
“Why did LASIEC removed logos of political parties from the ballot paper when only 15 parties contested?
“People on election day got to the polling units where they used to vote, only to discover that there were no polling units there, or LASIEC officers didn’t come to conduct elections.
“In some polling units, the voter register list, brought by LASIEC, had names and pictures totally different from those who were supposed to vote there. We have videos and pictures to back up all these,” he said.
According to him, the election results should be nullified and cancelled.
Also, the State APP Chairman and Secretary of IPAC , Mrs Abiola Adeyemi, said that she was nearly beaten by alleged APC thugs in Badagry for complaining over removal of the APP logo from the ballots in Badagry.
Corroborating, Mr Dele Oladeji, the State Chairman of Accord, said that political parties contested against LASIEC and not among themselves.
Oladeji said that contrary to norms, stakeholders were not given the opportunity to monitor distribution of sensitive materials for the election, saying the umpire glaringly showed bias.
“LASIEC acted as election players not as umpire. We actually contested against LASIEC. It was a systematic rigging orchestrated prior to the election day.
“We went into the election blindfolded because of the intended compromise. We were not allowed access to the ballot paper before the polls.
“LASIEC declared winners without results. So, we are calling on LASIEC to present the results to political parties and the public for us to scrutinise it.
“We know LASIEC will not listen to our appeal and we have decided to approach the tribunal and court where applicable,” Oladeji said.
