The Youth Party would like to thank our members and supporters for their commitment and support throughout the campaign leading up to the Lagos Local Government Elections that held yesterday, Saturday July 24, 2021.

Our Campaign was crowd funded and blessed with spirited supporters, even in the face of exclusion by LASIEC and INEC. Still, our supporters believe in the expansion of our democratic space and the possibility of a better Nigeria, and that conviction shone brightly.

Although there was no level paying field, our party won comfortably in several polling units. We were excluded from all processes leading to the Election. Supporters that registered to vote after 2018 were excluded from election by administrative fiat. Our votes were suppressed by the late arrival of voting materials, leading many of our voters to leave the polling units without having cast their votes. Materials arrived at 3:15pm for polls that closed at 3pm in some cases. Votes were cast in non-designated locations and inaccessible places including a Royal Palace. In many places, our voters were stopped from voting if they didn’t vote for the ruling Party. Despite all of these challenges, we presented capable and inspiring candidates, who campaigned vigorously and made their presence felt at the voting booth.

There are significant issues with Nigeria’s voting processes, especially for Local Government Elections and many of them were reflected in yesterday’s election. The Youth Party will continue to fight vigorously, at the polling booth and in courts of law, to enforce the rights of Nigerians to participate in the democratic space.

We are proud of our candidates, the campaigns they ran and our efforts at the elections, and grateful for the support of all of you who are passionate about building a better Nigeria and the expansion of the democratic space.

We await the final results of the election, knowing that this is not a sprint but a marathon. And we invite all those who share our vision to join us to shape a great and worthy future for Nigeria

Thank you all for your support.

God bless you and God bless Nigeria.

Tomiwa Aladekomo
National Chair

The Youth Party of Nigeria has lamented  over some shortcomings in the ongoing local government election in Lagos State.

In a statement, the party said the exercise recorded some logistics in certain areas.

“It is extremely disturbing to us that at noon, with only three hours left to vote, election materials have still not reached several polling units across the State (at least 20 that we’ve identified at this time), especially in key areas of Eti-Osa, Lekki.”

“Additionally there have been substantive and ill-intentioned efforts to confuse voters, with voting booths being moved in several places and talk of votes being ascribed to locations other wards.

“Voters are not being properly informed of their rights and agents are deliberately misleading candidates to disenfranchise them.

“Conversely, we are also seeing extensive cases of LASIEC officials allowing people to vote without proper accreditation, making it possible for voters to vote in multiple polling booths.

Suppression of the people’s right to vote is never acceptable and LASIEC is doing a grave disservice to the people to Lagos and Nigeria today. It must and will not stand.”

The Chairman of Youth Party, Tomiwa Aladekomo, has expressed concerns over some inadequacies in the conduct of some Lagos State Electoral Independent Commission, LASEIC officials at the on going local government elections.

Aladekomo stated that “it is extremely disturbing to us that at noon, with only three hours left to vote, election materials have still not reached several polling units across the State (at least 20 that we’ve identified at this time), especially in key areas of Eti-Osa, Lekki.

“Additionally there have been substantive and ill-intentioned efforts to confuse voters, with voting booths being moved in several places and talk of votes being ascribed to locations other wards.”

He also added that “Voters are not being properly informed of their rights and agents are deliberately misleading candidates to disenfranchise them.

“Conversely, we are also seeing extensive cases of LASIEC officials allowing people to vote without proper accreditation, making it possible for voters to vote in multiple polling booths.

“Suppression of the people’s right to vote is never acceptable and LASIEC is doing a grave disservice to the people to Lagos and Nigeria today. It must and will not stand,” he said.

The Youth Party (YP) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of disenfranchising its members from contesting in the Lagos State Local Government Area chairmanship and councillorship elections scheduled for July 24, 2021.

It described the situation as a continuous victimisation of the party.

In a statement issued and signed by the Trustee of the party, Francis Akinlotan, yesterday the party accused INEC of refusing to list the party on its official website as a registered political party, and also refusing to confirm the party’s status to the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), despite several court judgments.

Akinlotan said the party commenced the process of registration in December 2016, “and INEC was against us from the outset. We had to get a court judgment to be considered for registration at all cost.

“Essentially, we had to get a judgment to get an application form. A process that should not take three months according to the law, took more than two years with dire consequences.”

He said the party was eventually registered on August 14, 2018, just a few days before the commencement of primaries for the 2019 general election, despite a judgement of the Federal High Court delivered on October 20, 2017, directing INEC to register the party.

According to the statement, “The late registration of the party affected its ability to perform at the 2019 general election.

“Meanwhile, INEC was busy sponsoring the amendment of the constitution in a manner that would empower it to deregister the party immediately after the 2019 elections.

“INEC sponsored the amendment of Section 225a of the constitution, while delaying our registration. The said Section 225a was amended to require performance of parties at election, without giving any period to allow the parties to grow organically.

“Nonetheless, we fielded 11 candidates for House of Representatives and state Houses of Assembly all over the country in those elections. Immediately after the 2019 elections, INEC threatened to deregister our party.

“Consequently, we commenced a court action against INEC in January 2020 at the Federal High Court in Abuja. All other political parties that sued INEC were left off the deregistration list, as the commission cited pending litigation, but not with the Youth Party.”

Akinlotan accused INEC of continuously breaching the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association of members of the party.

“Currently, the LASIEC is about to conduct local government elections in the state and our party wishes to field candidates and participate in the election.

“However, INEC has refused to confirm the status of our party to LASIEC despite the judgments of courts. Thus, the Youth Party and its members are being denied the right to freely participate in the upcoming local government elections,” he stated.

The Youth Party has said there was no level playing field in the just concluded local government election in Lagos State.

The president of the party, Tomiwa Aladekomo, said this on Sunday while addressing journalists on the irregularities they observed in Saturday’s election in the state.

Mr Aladekomo said some of the supporters of the party were disenfranchised because polling units were moved to intimidating places such as the Palace of Oba Elegushi at Lekki-Ikate.

Thousands of Lagosians on Saturday voted representatives for councillorship and local government chairmanship positions across all the 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs in the state.

The election, which was marred by low turnout of voters, had the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) win several seats.

Although election results for some LGAs are yet to be announced, APC won in Badagry, Epe, Shomolu, Bariga, Kosofe, Surulere and other areas.

‘Suppression of Votes’

The Youth Party leadership said votes in the Saturday election were suppressed due to late arrival of materials and other irregularities.

“We were excluded from all processes leading to the election. Supporters that registered to vote after 2018 were excluded from election by administrative fiat.

“Our votes were suppressed by the late arrival of voting materials, leading many of our voters to leave the polling units without having cast their votes. Materials arrived at 3:15pm for polls that closed at 3pm in some cases,” Mr Aladekomo said.

He added that votes were cast in non-designated locations and inaccessible places including a Royal Palace.

“For emphasis, the election in Lekki-Ikate was deeply flawed. Our supporters were unable to access the polling booth because 6 polling units in Ikate were moved to the Palace of Oba Elegushi. Specifically, polling unit 03 to 08 were moved to the palace thereby disenfranchising our supporters,” the party leader said.

Mr Aladekomo said despite that there was no level playing field, their party won comfortably in eight polling units “by a landslide.”

He, however, did not provide details of the polling units where his party won.

“Despite all of these challenges, we presented capable and inspiring candidates, who campaigned vigorously and made their presence felt at the voting booth.

“We are proud of our candidates, the campaigns they ran and our efforts at the elections, and grateful for the support of all of you who are passionate about building a better Nigeria and the expansion of the democratic space,” he said.

Alleged rigging

The party also accused adhoc staff of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) of colluding with party agents and political associates to rig the election.

Ayo Adio, a member of the party, said the “shameless rigging” by APC was captured in some polling units, with videos and pictures circulated.

He made reference to the video of a woman caught voting on several ballot papers at one of the polling units in Lagos.

“There are significant issues with Nigeria’s voting processes, especially for Local Government Elections and many of them were reflected in yesterday’s election.

“In the three polling units at Igbokusu, our agents were harassed, threatened and chased away from their polling stations where ballots were stuffed and people voted multiple times with the collusion of LASIEC officials and the police.

“The kind of rigging and violence deployed in these polling units should embarrass the commission especially with the shameful videos of the rigging currently circulating the media space,” the party said.

Mr Aladekomo said the worst scenario recorded in the Saturday election was moving collation centres without notice to a different location where members of the party were harassed and intimidated.

“The Youth Party will continue to fight vigorously, at the polling booth and in courts of law, to enforce the rights of Nigerians to participate in the democratic space,” the party leader said.

He added that they have confidence in the leadership of LASIEC, headed by a retired Chief Judge of Lagos State, Ayotunde Phillips, and the party is sure the irregularities will be looked into.

The party urged the commission to cancel election results of areas where electoral malpractices were recorded.

“There is no way Justice Philips will tolerate the conduct of many of her staff who did several things to embarrass the Commission. We therefore call on her to cancel the elections in Igbokusu and Ikate where the elections were massively and shamelessly rigged.

“Another election should be conducted in Lekki Phase as well to redeem the credibility of the poll, We call for fresh elections in the affected polling units and urge the Commission to do everything possible to ensure that the conduct is free and fair,” Mr Aladekomo said.