Today, the Ikorodu APC (All Progressives Congress) is a shadow of itself as its members are divided. Though, before the Sanwo-Olu regime, there had been power tussle among members of the party, now it’s more pronounced. When some members made up of Chief Kaoli Olusanya, SOB Agunbiade and others pulled out to form their own group tagged APC Ikorodu Division Caucus, they severed ties with the general APC Apex Forum in Ikorodu division and operate in isolation.
The Kaoli’s group has established a secretariat in his residence and they have ceased to attend meeting with the Apex Forum which is led by the former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Prince Abiodun Ogunlewe and Asiwaju Bashorun Olorunfunmi. As it is, each faction now has secretariat at different location. Their inconsiderate actions, according to a political observer, do not favour Ikorodu Division because any political appointment coming to Ikorodu is now a bone of contention between the two groups. The anonymous observer cited the case of the LASUBEB Local Government Education Secretaryship position for Ikorodu as evidence of how polarized the division is.
The discord was fuel by the believe of Kaoli Olusanya who assumed that being the representative of Lagos East Senatorial district, he is the authentic representative of Ikorodu Division and whatever he says is final. The other group led by Abiodun Ogunleye disagreed with him, saying that the Apex Forum represents Ikorodu Division and that their decisions have more weight and should serve the interest of everyone in the division. The latter faction argued that being the party representative for Lagos East Senatorial District does not warrant Kaoli Olusanya to pose himself as male de facto of Ikorodu Division and as far as Ikorodu Division is concerned, Abiodun Ogunlewe and Olorunfunmi Bashorun who are leaders of the Apex Forum as well as members of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), are the dominant leaders of the party in the division.
The result of this political feud in Ikorodu is that the division is being shortchanged in terms of political appointments because when there is no unity among the leaders, other people from other parts of Lagos will laughed at our misguided ambitions. Unless these warring leaders harmonize their differences, the people of Ikorodu will always lose. The question these leaders should be asking themselves are: how many permanent secretaries do we have in the civil service? How many commissioners do we have among the governor’s cabinet?
As one politician said, they all should be ashamed of themselves. They ought to bury their heads in shame, instead they are busy fighting over superiority while the division is losing out.
Below is a list of the members of the feuding groups in the Ikorodu divided APC party.
