Posted by By RAZAQ BAMIDELE on
Coalition of Opposition Political Parties (CPP) in Lagos State has agreed to partake in the October 11, local government election into 57 councils as against its earlier stand on 20 local government.
Coalition of Opposition Political Parties (CPP) in Lagos State has agreed to partake in the October 11, local government election into 57 councils as against its earlier stand on 20 local government.
The coalition, which consists of 15 political parties at a press conference in Lagos at the weekend expressed their willingness to partake in the election, saying staying away from the exercise could be an unpatriotic act to the people of Lagos State.
Speaking on behalf of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Kunle Adedoyin, said 'the press conference was imperative to correct a lot of misinterpretations making the rounds that all the political parties in Lagos, save the Action Congress, (AC) are set to stay away from the election,' adding 'it is our strong desire to correct this unpatriotic act because we firmly believe that Lagos State is not the exclusive preserve of the Action Congress, (AC).
Adedoyin, who doubled as the coordinating chairman of the coalition said 'all political parties present here today have resolved that our parties will participate in the election scheduled for October 11, 2008 and field candidates in all the 20 local governments as well as in the 37 Local Council Development Areas, (LCDAS) because we believe that the Lagos State government has fulfilled all constitutional processes in the creation of the local governments.'
Our desire to participate the ADC chieftain continued, 'as borne out of our belief in the principle of federalism and genuine concern that Lagos is truly qualified to have more than 20 local governments as it was constituted before the creation of the additional ones.'
Against this background, the coalition therefore 'appeal to the other political parties that have not shared in this patriotic dream to shealth their swords and join us to ensure a better deal for Lagos State and in our own way contribute to bringing development closer to the people who are the essence of government.'
The coalition chairman, who debunked he insinuation that the 15 political parties were bought over by the AC government therefore appealed to the National Assembly go expiate actions towards listing the newly councils in the constitution or at best expunge that section that provided for any meddling into the local government issue by any control arm of the government.
Some parties represented at the conference were the Alliance for Democracy (AD), National Action Council (NAC) African Democratic Congress (ADC) Action Alliance (AA), National Democratic Party (NDP), Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ), All Peoples Grand Alliance (APGA), Justice Party (JP) and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and Democratic Peoples Alliance, (DPA) among others while the main opposition party in Lagos, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) were conspicuously absent.