The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos State has distanced itself from reports that its members were responsible for electoral violence during the March 18 governorship and state house of assembly elections in the State, stating the reverse as the case.
Recall that prior to the election, there were divisive statements in the social media space, mostly ethnically provocative comments between the Yorubas and Igbos in Lagos.
The Chairman of Lagos State Parks Management Committee, Musiliu Akinsanya a.k.a. MC Oluomo, in a viral video threatened Igbos to stay indoors, if they will not vote the APC during the election.
On the election day, videos of thugs snatching ballot boxes could be seen, threatening those who would not vote for a particular Party, disrupting electoral process at different polling units, among other acts of electoral irregularities.
However the ruling APC, who emerged winners of the February 25 presidential election and the March 18 governorship election in Lagos, claimed that some people who are not happy with the outcome of the elections are holding meetings on Twitter Space on how to disturb the peace of the State.
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The Party’s Publicity Secretary, Seye Oladejo in a press conference organized in Ikeja on Thursday to brief the media on the outcome of the March 18 governorship and state house of assembly election, said the opposition claimed that APC threatened and intimidated voters to discredit the outcome of the election.
Oladejo said, “On the contrary, our members were mostly the victims of intimidation and violence. Many are still in hospitals where doctors are battling to save their lives.
“The allegation of threat and intimidation of voters is a typical deployment of the strategy of the aggressor playing the victim. How else do we explain the case of Omatseye Iseli a.k.a Tee Mac, a Labour Party chieftain who went to a polling unit with wild dogs, boasted of his unlawful action, only to jump into the media space the following day to allege intimidation after it was glaring that his party lost woefully in the gubernatorial election?
“It is on record that, there are 13,325 polling units in Lagos State and there were reports of disturbances in about 130 or one percent of all the polling units. I think that is too infinitesimal for anyone to rely upon to say that the election was not free and fair. In other words, under no circumstance can we say this has invalidated the credibility of the elections.
“We also need to state that the false alarm that members of the APC perpetrated violence during the election cannot be substantiated. It is sheer falsehood.
“The party has loyalists, members, and sympathisers in all nooks and crannies of the state. It has no reason to embrace violence.”
