The Youth Occasion has strongly condemned the conduct of the Lagos State Native Authorities elections held on Saturday, July 12, 2025, describing the method as “shambolic” and “blatantly rigged” in favour of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
This condemnation follows an analogous rejection by the Labour Occasion, which labelled the train a “harmful blueprint for electoral fraud” forward of the 2027 basic elections.
On Sunday, the Lagos State Unbiased Electoral Fee, LASIEC, declared APC candidates as winners of all 57 chairmanship positions contested.
The occasion additionally secured 375 out of the 376 councillorship seats, with the Peoples Democratic Occasion, PDP, clinching a single ward.
In an announcement issued by the Chairman of the Youth Occasion’s Lagos chapter, Francisco Doregos, the occasion accused LASIEC of presiding over a deeply flawed course of, citing incidents of voter suppression and widespread malpractice.
“Expectedly, the Lagos State Native Authorities Elections have been shambolic and blatantly rigged towards our candidates with reckless and shameless abandon,” Doregos mentioned.
He alleged that the electoral physique had been compromised from the onset, pointing to the appointment of commissioners with identified affiliations to the APC.
Doregos additionally accused LASIEC of failing to satisfy important authorized necessities, equivalent to issuing correct election notices and publishing the voters’ register forward of the polls.
The Youth Occasion additionally claimed that safety businesses have been used to intimidate and hinder its candidates, but it insisted that it outperformed different opposition events within the areas the place it fielded candidates.
“We have been clearly the popular occasion with out rigging,” Doregos asserted.
“We emerged as probably the most most well-liked alternative throughout the polling models the place we fielded candidates, outperforming the PDP, AA, ZLP and different opposition events,” he added.
The Labour Occasion additionally expressed sturdy dissatisfaction with the end result of the election. In an announcement signed by the Chairman of its Nationwide Caretaker Committee, Senator Nenadi Usman, and issued in Abuja by her Senior Particular Adviser on Media, Ken Asogwa, the occasion accused the APC of brazen electoral manipulation, with alleged collusion from LASIEC officers.
In accordance with Usman, the APC’s clear sweep of the election was “shameless” and “unprecedented in Nigeria’s electoral historical past.”
“The farce that performed out in Lagos on Saturday below the guise of council election has as soon as once more uncovered the APC as a celebration allergic to democratic rules and due course of,” the assertion learn.
“The audacity with which LASIEC officers collaborated brazenly with APC operatives represents a brand new low.”
The Labour Occasion claimed that its brokers throughout varied components of the state reported quite a few irregularities, together with poll bins already filled with thumb-printed papers and pre-filled end result sheets delivered to polling models even earlier than voting started.
“Whereas nobody expects electoral decency from the APC, we had hoped they might at the least fake. Even that pretence has now been discarded,” the occasion lamented.
Calling for calm amongst its supporters, the Labour Occasion demanded a direct cancellation of the outcomes and the conduct of a contemporary, credible election course of that really displays the desire of Lagosians.
“Lagos, referred to as the Centre of Excellence, shouldn’t be diminished to a theatre of electoral absurdity. What occurred on Saturday is a transparent crimson flag, one that each one true democrats in Nigeria must be alarmed by,” Asogwa warned.
