How the ACN broom swept Lagos!

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the ruling party in Lagos State, recorded a landslide victory in all the 21 Federal Constituencies where elections were conducted.

Agege

According to the officials results released and signed by the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent Electoral Commission, Adekunle Ogunmola, the party cleared all the polls. In Agege Federal Constituency, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) got 19, 376 votes, close to the Peoples Democratic Party's 20,086 votes. However, Babatunde Adejare, from the ruling party, led with 38,963 votes. The election was generally peaceful in the area.

Alimosho and Apapa

The party also more than doubled PDP's 28, 538 votes with 61,822 votes going to Taiwo Adenekan in Ajeromi-Ifelodun. At Alimosho and Apapa, Adeola Olamilekan and Babatunde Adewale gave no room to PDP, carting away 77,384 and 26,492 votes respectively, a far cry from PDP's 52,720 and 11,443 votes. But in Amuwo-Odofin, Labour Party's 14,749 votes was far ahead of PDP's 9,259 votes. However, their combined figure was still less than Ganiyu Olukolu's 26,662 votes.

Despite the fact that the PDP has a strong presence in the Badagry Federal Constituency, with two representatives at the House of Assembly, they lost to the ACN; having a mere 18,161 votes in comparison to Arinola Onabamiro's 26,702 votes.

Lekki and Epe

In Epe, Labour Party again came close to swiping PDP off the second position with 9,001 votes in relation to PDP's 9,955 votes. However, the ACN still carried the day with Lanre Odubote's 23,516 votes.

In Eti-Osa and Ibeju-Lekki Federal Constituencies, despite the deep-seated presence of the PDP and the controversial tolled Lekki-Epe Expressway, ACN's Akinloye Babajide and Yomi Aiyeola still led with 30,779 and 18,828 votes respectively, a far cry from PDP's 14,903 and 12,833 votes.

Voters in Polling Unit 016A Oba Adeyinka Oyekan Estate, Lekki Phase One, and other centres, however, alleged that the electoral process there was manipulated to favour the ACN. The voters, who waited for several hours for the officials of the Independent Electoral Commission to arrive, lamented what they called "unacceptable of the whole electoral process."

Ikeja and Kosofe

In Ikeja, the seat of power in Lagos, PDP was sent to the gallows with no single valid vote recorded for the party. ACN's James Faleke led with 32,757 votes, with the CPC trailing far behind with 3,529 votes.

The constant harassment faced by commercial motorcyclists and drivers was predicted to be ACN's Achilles' heel in Kosofe. However, this did not affect their victory as Yacoob Alebiosu still carried the day with 63,070 votes. The large number of northerners in the area also accounted for CPC's 4,472 votes, which trailed behind PDP's 18,744 votes.

Mainland and Island

Lagos Mainland and Lagos Island I and II, which collectively make up a sizable part of the Lagos Central Senatorial District, had some of the greatest criticisms. This was due to the candidacy of Remi Tinubu, wife of former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, who emerged as the candidate for the district. Her candidacy forced some people out of the ACN fold while many disgruntled voices that chose to stay within the fold were believed to be working against her victory.

However, at both the Senatorial and House of Representative levels, ACN still had a clear victory, with CPC pulling no votes at the House of Representative levels in any of the three constituencies. ACN's Alao Owolabi, Olajumoke Okoya-Thomas and Yakub Balogun led with 40,380, 17,803 and 22,254 votes respectively.

Mushin

Mushin I and Mushin II was predicted to be one of the most violent areas in Lagos for the elections. However, the ACN had a clear victory with Abayomi Kako-Are and Ganiyu Hamzat leading with 37,412 and 39,215 votes respectively. In Ojo Federal Constituency, PDP's 20,080 votes did nothing to deter ACN's Isiaka Suarau's victory with 32,501 votes. PDP had less than half of ACN's votes in Oshodi-Isolo I and Oshodi-Isolo II, pulling out a meagre 12,283 and 11,254 supporters. ACN's Fatai Maruf and Muniru Hakeem smiled home with 26,891 and 30,792 votes.

Surulere

Dapo Durosinmi-Etti, a former ACN member who defected to Labour Party on the heel of the party's shambolic primary elections, showed his strong presence in Surulere; however his party lacked the strong grass roots followership needed to win election.

In Surulere I, the Labour Party had no votes, but PDP had 7,045, far from ACN's Hakeem Gbajabiamila's gallant 20,493 votes. But in Surulere II, Labour Party swiped PDP off the second position with 12,217 votes, which was still far behind ACN's Alliu Kazeem's 29,905 votes.

The complaints

But ACN's victory has not been completely accepted by PDP. According to the secretary of the state chapter of the PDP, Tunji Selle, the party will be contesting election results in Alimosho, Eti-Osa, and Mushin local government areas of the state following alleged reports of election malpractices and would soon take its complaints to court.

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