Culled From Leadership, By OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU
Following complaints from residents of Isolo Local Council Development Area, LCDA, of Lagos State against the LCDA chairman, Hon Shamusideen Abiodun Olaleye, LEADERSHIP took a tour of the council and discovered that there is more than meets the eye in the complaints, reports OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU.
Isolo Local Council Development Area, LCDA, is one of the LCDAs carved out of the old Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Areas of Lagos State during the administration of former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The purpose of the local councils is mainly to bring governance to the people at the grassroots, but LEADERSHIP findings have revealed that the people of Isolo LCDA seem to have been shortchanged by the incumbent chairman, Hon Shamsudeen Abiodun Olaleye, who is currently serving in office as a second term chairman of the LCDA.
It was complaints galore from residents of the LCDA and members of the ruling party, All progressives Congress, APC, who spoke to LEADERSHIP on condition of anonymity. They complained that since his inauguration as chairman since July 2017, the chairman has not delivered one single project, thus denying the people of the much-awaited dividends of democracy.
According to some residents and leaders of the party in government in the LCDA, the APC, the only thing the chairman has done since assumption of office in July 2017 is the purchase of seven swcond hand Toyota Camry cars for the seven councilors in the LCDA.
Majority of the roads in the LCDA are in deplorable conditions, creating untold hardship for the people of the LCDA, who are now lamenting the emergence of Hon Olaleye as chairman of the LCDA.
With numerous companies and industries in manufacturing, clothing,shoe dealers, printing among others, domiciled in the LCDA, including but not limited to Johnson Wax Nigeria Limited, Chellarams Plc, Chi Limited, Banex Paints, Olam Nigeria Limited, Conseil Energie Nigeria Limited, Bee Jay Foods, Joma Confectioneries, Dynamic Industries Limited, Dportas Nigeria Limited, H Kazat International Limited, Bloomnet Nigeria Limited, Imperial Packaging Limited, Golden Globalink Resources Nig. Limited, Cormart Nigeria Limited and Kalinz Elegant Prints and the popular Aswani Market, the LCDA which has no business being poor, is said to have grossed not less than N290 million in internally generated revenue, IGR, in the last 10 months, and has since July 2017 to April 2018 received from the state and local government /council development areas joint account allocation committee (JAAC) a total sum of N445,353,168.02.
Simply put, the LCDA has grossed over N600 million in revenue in the last 10 months, yet, it has not touched the lives of the residents positively with any meaningful project.
LEADERSHIP findings revealed that Hon Shamsudeen Abiodun Olaleye popularly called Shame has also become estranged with everyone who contributed to his emergence as chairman of Isolo LCDA. Prominent among them is the leader of the party in the LCDA and chairman of the APC in Lagos State, Chief Henry Ajomale, who, according to reports, Hon Olaleye has done everything to denigrate at every given opportunity.
A trip round the LCDA was an indication that it looks more or less like there is no government presence, except with the urbanization projects of the Lagos State government, by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
Investigations also revealed that the LCDA chairman lords over the LCDA like an emperor ruling over a conquered territory, as he has refused to take counsel from party leaders in the LCDA.
A concerned resident and party member, who craved anonymity for fear of reprisal told LEADERSHIP, “I must confess to you that we regret giving Hon Olaleye the opportunity of a second term. In fact, during the run-up to the local council election in 2017, his name and one other were removed from the list of candidates, but the state chairman, having listened to the counsel of our National Leader, Senator Tinubu and many of we leaders of the party in the LCDA reinstated his name. This is what we get for supporting him and insisting that he was chosen for a second term.
“I can tell you categorically that Isolo LCDA is the worst among all other councils and LCDAs in Lagos State in terms of infrastructural development. This administration has not executed any single project that would add value to the lives of the people of Isolo LCDA.”
The source also complained about the overbearing and winner-takes-all attitudes of Hon Olaleye in his running the affairs of the council. He said, “He doesn’t listen to advice. He has alienated everyone of us who helped him to surmount the hurdles on his way to a second term and to cap it all, he is arrogant.”
Isolo LCDA is made up of seven wards – Akinbaye, Ajao Estate, Ilasa, Alagbeji, Okota, Apena and Ishaga/Ire Akari, where Hon Olaleye hails from. None of these wards, not even his own ward of Ishaga/Ire Akari, has benefitted anything from his administration 10 months down the line.
What many have called Hon Olaleye's non challant attitude, lack of respect for elders and greed manifested in the just concluded ward congress of the APC held last Saturday, May 5 in the Centre of Excellence and across the country.
According to information made available to LEADERSHIP from competent sources, in line with the directive and admonition of the APC National Leader, Tinubu, that all leaders in troubled councils in Lagos, including Oshodi/Isolo, Amuwo Odofin, Alimoso, Ajeromi/Ifelodun and Surulere, should meet and resolve their differences before the congress to present a harmonized and united front, the state APC chairman, Ajomale, who is also from the LCDA and by virtue of his position as the leader of the party, called for a stakeholders’ meeting of Isolo LCDA few days before the ward congress to resolve all grey areas.
It was learnt that Hon Olaleye and one Chief M.A. Taiwo, a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council, GAC, who is said to be an APC member in Lagos and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, member in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he has relocated, shunned the meeting which LEADERSHIP learnt was attended by the state Chairman, Chief Ajomale, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, former Commissioner for Works, Engr. Ganiyu Johnson, former chairman of the LCDA, Mrs Mary Osaghale, former members of the House of Representatives, Hons. Jayeola Ajatta and Muniru Akeem and Funsho Kinashi, among others.
The meeting agreed that instead of the covetous sharing formula as espoused by the chairman of Isolo LCDA, all party members interested in one office or the other should be allowed to contest and test their popularity at the scheduled congress of the party.
LEADERSHIP learnt that Hon Olaleye visited the secretariat of the party in the council area on Wednesday, May 2, where he called for consensus and demanded for 50 per cent of the ward officers in each of the seven wards.
A ward has 26 officers that make up the executive council and the seven wards among them would have 292 officers. The chairman is demanding to have 146 officers in the seven wards of the LCDA. The stakeholders outrighly rejected his request and told him that instead of conceding 50% to the chairman anyone interested in any of the positions should go to the field and contest.
He was said to have threatened party leaders not to attend the congress, except those who are ready to die.
Chief Taiwo’s popularity, according to sources which confided in LEADERSHIP, has waned overtime, due to his membership of dual parties and his penchant for cornering appointments in the LCDA for his biological children.
On Saturday, Hon Olaleye was said to have made real his threat, as his Chief Security Officer, Tunde Adebowale, a coordinator of the Dr Fredrick Fasehun faction of the Oodua peoples Congress, OPC, allegedly recruited OPC members decked in black top upon black trousers, all armed to the teeth to terrorize APC members perceived not loyal to Olaleye, at the congress.
A leading aspirant for the Oshodi/Isolo federal constituency II for the House of Representatives, Hon Muniru Hakeem, was rough handled by the thugs who disrupted the congress, and was saved by the Area Commander of Area D Police Command, when he noticed that even policemen deployed to maintain peace were taking side. This was contrary to reports gaining grounds that Hon Hakeem was arrested and handcuffed by the police.
Hon Muniru Hakeem told LEADERSHIP on phone that the police only rescued him from Olaleye’s thugs who had torn his clothes.
He said, “Contrary to the story being peddled by Lanre Olaleye, brother of Hon Olaleye and his media aide, I was never arrested. I was only taken to protective custody by the Area Commander to protect my life.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Ward Congress Committee for Isolo LCDA, Wale Adelana, told LEADERSHIP that election in three wards in the LCDA was inconclusive, as hired thugs and hoodlums, allegedly sponsored by Hon Olaleye prevented APC members from exercising their franchise.
Meanwhile, LEADERSHIP learnt that Hon Olaleye did not show up at the ward congress but was holed up in his office at the LCDA secretarial in Aswani, Isolo, dishing out instructions to his foot soldiers on what to do.
Efforts by LEADERSHIP to reach him proved abortive, as he did not pick calls made to his mobile phone. Calls made to the mobile number of his media aide and brother, Lanre also went unpicked. And when LEADERSHIP visited the LCDA secretariat to see the chairman, suspected thugs prevented the paper from gaining entrance into the secretariat, claiming that the chairman was not available.
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