- Safiu Kehinde
Operatives of the Lagos State Police Command have on Saturday stirred controversies as they sealed the venue for African Democratic Congress’ (ADC) rally in Alimosho area of the state.
This was just as thugs also disrupted the rally after ADC leaders and members attempted to activate a second plan after the original place was sealed up.
As captured in videos shared on Facebook, the venue of rally slated to hold on Sunday was heavily guarded by policemen with their patrol vehicles.
Some supporters of the party however held their ground as they loitered around the venue until the arrival of the 2023 Labour Party’s Lagos Governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.
The ex-governorship candidate who had earlier this week officially defected to the ADC sued for calm as he addressed the supporters.
He maintained that the party has the right to gather or hold its meeting while vowing to see the Lagos Police Commissioner.
“We’ve come to see what is going on. The Police is out friend. And we believe that they are here to protect us and make sure that the place is safe.
“No issues, we are going to see the Commissioner of Police to discuss using this place.
“It is our constitutional right to gather. We are not doing a rally. We are not doing protest. We are just here to gather as an organisation and there is nothing wrong with that.” He said.
One of the members of the planning committee disclosed that they had submitted letter of notification about the usage of the venue since the past three days which is yet to be approved.
“We wrote a letter of notification to both the Area Command and the Estate Police station here. It has minuted upon and forwarded to the police about three days ago.
“Up till now, we await the approval. On getting here this morning, we found out that the place has been condoned off by the police. We were told that we need to go and see the Commissioner of Police.” He said.
https://x.com/NpoReports/status/1964551274587725849
Beyond sealing of a venue, the Alimosho LGA is known to be the political stronghold of the ADC National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in Lagos.
The ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), had at the 2023 Presidential Election suffered defeat to the Labour Party with Alimosho being one of the LGAs with most votes for the opposition party.
Alimosho is the original political base of former Governor of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, who is now the National Secretary of the ADC.
In the 2023 presidential election, the Labour Party had won the Alimosho area causing an upset to the ruling APC in the state.
Aregbesola had however intervened in the governorship election which took place a week after by meeting various stakeholders; a move believed to have yielded results with the APC winning in Alimosho in the governorship election.
Alimosho, which used to be a very stronghold of the APC and believed to be under the political influence of the former Interior Minister,