Breaking: Rancour tears members apart, as dissenting views halt Lagos APC stakeholders meeting
By Moses Adeniyi
Stakeholders meeting in Lagos ahead of the Saturday Ward Congress of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was brought to an abrupt end, following rancour among dissenting camps.
The National Caretaker Committee had earlier directed State Chapters of the party to bring all party leaders and members together to deliberate on the forthcoming congresses in a bid to reaching consensus.
Sequel to the directives, various meetings had been convened centred on reaching agreement on the desirability of consensus arrangement to reconcile interests towards forthcoming coming national elections.
Following the development, the Lagos State chapter of the APC has convened a statewide stakeholders’ meeting across the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the State.
However, the stakeholders meeting convened by the Lagos Committee on the Ward Congress on Friday ended abruptly over dissenting views.
The meeting which was scheduled for 3:00p.m kick started around past 4:00p.m, amidst solidarity songs by various camps who staged outside the hall.
Controversies had earlier clouded the venue of the meetings which later held at a private hotel in Ikeja, the State Capital.
Present at the meetings were members of the Party’s Lagos Committee on Ward Congress, key members of the State’s House of Assembly, some members of the State’s Executive Council of the Lagos State Government, members of the ‘Lagos for Lagos Movement’, among other key stakeholders in the State’s party politics.
Shortly after the introduction of the agenda by the National Chairman of the Lagos Ward Congress Committe, Muhammed Bashiru, the committee requested for a close door session excusing the press.
However, signals of grievances surfaced following a request by a frontline figure of the ‘Lagos for Lagos Movement’, Dr. Abdulazeez Oladiran, to address a matter before the press leaves the meeting.
Turning the request down, the Chairman of the Committee who directed him to take a seat, directed that the press would be invited for briefing after the closed door deliberations.
However shortly (less 20 minutes) after the closed door session commenced, stakeholders staged out a walk out of the meeting aggrieved.
It was gathered that dissenting views from aggrieved camps teared the meeting apart – a development that brought the meeting to an abrupt and inconclusive end.
Details Later..
