The leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagelu local government has refuted claim made by the director general of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism, NIHOTOUR, Abisoye Fagade that the party chairman, Mr Fatai Awoyoola deliberately refused to allow any meeting since the last general elections in 2023.
Describing the claim as inaccurate and outright falsehood in a statement jointly signed by Awoyoola and the party aecretary, Mr Gbenga Adekanbi, on behalf of the leaders and executive members of the party, they said that “the claim made by Chief Abisoye Fagade against the leadership of our party came to us as a rude shock. Chief Abisoye Fagade statement is only trying to make a mountain out of moles and blows a simple issue out of proportion.
“The claim by Chief Fagade in the said open letter that ‘since last election, there has been no single meeting, no engagement, and no effort to strengthen or reposition the party at the grassroots’ is incorrect and absolute falsehood.
“The allegation by Chief Fagade means that he is not in tune with the tradition of Lagelu Local Government APC in reality.
“Before setting the record straight, we would like to remind him that he once sent a message that someone should be representing him in the stakeholders meeting, which was rejected by all stakeholders because the political level of the person he sent is far below the status of the stakeholders meeting and it may be abused by others if allowed for one person. If there’s no meeting or engagement, why did he make a request to be represented?
“Now, the tradition of APC in Lagelu Local Government since 2014 is that the power to call for general meetings lies with all the stakeholders. There would first be meeting of stakeholders where the date and time of the general meeting will be agreed upon. The chairman has never unilaterally fixed the date and time of the general meeting.
“These stakeholders consist of all leaders, all extended local government executives, all ward chairmen, former and current political office holders, and selected leaders from each zone of the local government. This is similar to NEC at the national level.
“The meeting of stakeholders where major decisions are made holds regularly, which Chief Fagade always gets an invitation for but has never deemed it fit to attend just for once. To put any blame whatsoever (even though there’s none) to the Party Chairman is grossly inaccurate and ill-conceive.
“The only meeting that has not been held in a recent time is the general meeting, and if this is what Chief Fagade termed as ‘no meeting’, then we would like to advise him to get more acquainted with the workings of the party because while general meeting is one of the meetings of the party, it is NOT the only meeting. Ward meetings are holding regularly across all the 14 wards. We participated in the last local government elections where the party had councillorship candidates across all 14 wards. If meetings were not held, how would candidates emerge from each ward?
“The decision to suspend the general meeting temporarily was made by the stakeholders when Olodo bridge was cut off and considering the hardship people face while passing through the area. The transport fare to Ejioku, where our party office is located, was #200 before the collapsed of the bridge and skyrocketed to #1,500. This was why the general meeting was temporarily suspended.
“After the partial opening of the bridge, stakeholders met again and deliberated on starting general meetings again. Delegations were sent to all the security agencies, including Nigeria Police Force, State Security Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, etc, to intimate them of our intention to start general meeting again. This is because we can not hold political meetings of that nature without security clearance.
“The delegation reported back to the stakeholders at another meeting, which was close to the last Ileya festival. The security agencies maintained our usual day, Thursdays, as was reported by the delegation. It was then decided that stakeholders would meet again after the Ileya festival to fix the date for the general meeting.
“All these discussions took place at stakeholders’ meetings, which Chief Fagade was invited to, but NEVER attended.
“While we understand that Chief Fagade joined Lagelu APC fully in 2022 when he showed interest in the contest for Governorship and later Senatorial election. It is not only laughable that someone who attends Lagelu APC meetings just two times prior to the 2023 election is now turning himself into the moral compass of the party, but also ridiculous.
“We would only advise him to familiarise himself more with the party and find time to attend stakeholders’ meetings like other stakeholders are doing instead of this unwarranted and unnecessary outburst,” the release stated.
