“IF YOU CARE ABOUT THIS CITY, THEN GO HOME AND DON’T VANDALISE OUR COLLECTIVE GAINS” -SOMOLU LG CHAIRMAN ‘DULLAR’ REACTS TO PROTESTERS’
By Trek Africa Newspaper
It is with a heavy heart and a deep sense of concern about the ongoing violence, chaos, and unrest in many parts of Somolu Local Government Area, that I make this appeal to the protesters and good people of our dear Local Council, to eschew violence and embrace peace and dialogue in finding solutions to the challenges we face as a Council.
I particularly appeal to other contestants and party men, and as a parent of youth and for improvement in their lives and their living conditions, to restrain from vandalizing, destroying and molesting other people that does holds same political view with them.
The youth too must give peace a chance while making their legitimate demands. They must be mindful of miscreants who will infiltrate their ranks and give the protests a bad name only so that trigger-happy forces will kill them. The destruction and looting of public and private properties will only hurt all of us and set us back. The targeting of individuals and groups for attacks and reprisal attacks will only further widen our divisions, escalate the crisis and threaten our fragile unity.
We are proud of our history and legacy as the home of the Free Speech Movement. While we have made clear our belief that the inflaming rhetoric and provocations of our opponents were in marked opposition to the basic values of this Council, we respected their right to free speech and seen as legitimate. The violence today and destruction of properties was an attack on the fundamental values of the Council, which stands for and helps to maintain and nurture open inquiry and an inclusive civil society, the bedrock of a genuinely democratic nation. We are now, and will remain in the future, completely committed to free speech as essential to our mission and a vital component of our identity at Somolu Local Government Area.
Some of our party men and women physically assaulted and their properties damaged are as thus:
1. Afolabi Ayodele (Chief Of Staff)
2. Owolabi Oseni ‘Ajimomuya’ (Chief Press Secretary)
3. Bolanle Aderibigbe of 3 Ayodele Street, Fadeyi (Fmr Woman Leader)
4. Bosun Oke of 10 Ogati (Fmr Chief of Staff SLG Council)
5. Nkechi Marvin (LGA Exco APC)
6. Iyabo Lawal (Apex Woman LGA Member) of 19, Shoyinka Fadeyi, her shop and her house at No 23, Lawal Street Off Owen Fadeyi.
7. Yinka Ademiju, staunch Olowo Rotimi Supporter
8. Popoola Sunkanmi of 22, Ayodele (Staunch APC Member)
9. Atanda Aramide (Olowo Babes)
10. Sacrilegious (Fmr Council Chairman, Somolu LGA) Hon. Gbolahan Bagostowe. No. 4 Adetoro John Fadeyi, his office and No. 4 Humani Street, Somolu.
11. Mariam Owolabi Bada (Ward E’ Dullar Continua Coordinator).
And the LGA APC Party Secretariat at 172 Ikorodu Rd Somolu was also touched.
This is not the legacy of civil rights in Lagos State nor Somolu Local Government Area. This is chaos, and we are buying into it. This won’t change anything, we are no longer talking about the primary election. We are talking about how you are burning infrastructures on the streets of Somolu. Go home.
The election (Primary) is over, let’s give peace a chance. It’s high time we come together as party to fashion out a way forward and better developmental milestones for our people. Politicking is momentum, it shouldn’t drag us behind or back or debar us from doing better as people.
Somolu belongs to us all, let’s protect our collective heritage and savage our wonderful city.
