The All Progressives Congress, APC, House of Representatives primary election in Ward C1 of Alimosho Local Government Area, Lagos State, was disrupted on Saturday following disagreements among party members over the choice of candidate.
The contest in the constituency is between Mr Ganiyu Ayuba and Mrs Adebisi Adebajo.
Tension reportedly escalated in the afternoon when the Chairman of Alimosho Local Government, Mr Akintunde Johnson, arrived at the ward venue, prompting party supporters to begin chanting the name of their preferred aspirant.
Johnson is widely believed to be aligned with one of the contestants in the primary election.
The situation soon degenerated into confusion, resulting in the disruption of the exercise and dispersal of party members at the venue.
Reacting to the development, the immediate past APC Chairman in Alimosho, Mr Tosin Fatoki, stated that the primary election could no longer hold in the ward due to the division among party faithful.
“The primaries will no longer hold at this ward, with the intense division among party faithful on their preferred candidate,” he said.
“At the arrival of the Alimosho LGA chairman, you can observe upheaval among the erstwhile patient party members.
“With this upheaval, a lot of them have been dispersed, so no primaries can hold here today,” he added.
Another party member accused the council chairman of attempting to influence the outcome of the process through intimidation.
“They think because they are in power, they can influence the party members’ choice of candidate, but we won’t let it happen.
“It is because of this intimidation that there will be no election in this ward. As you can see, the people have already been dispersed,” the member said.