Eighteen aspirants have indicated their interest to contest for the Lagos State House of Assembly seat for Alimoso State Constituency 1 in the coming general elections, reports The Gazelle News.com.
All of the aspirants are from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and findings by this medium have revealed that the incumbent, Honourable Bisi Yusuf may not seek re-election as he is reportedly seeking to represent Alimoso Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
Among the aspirants are two ex-Council bosses: Akin Bashiru, former Vice Chairman of Alimoso Local Government; and Opeyemi Adunni Akindele, former Executive Secretary of Mosan-Okunola Local Council Development Area. Akin Bashiru was Vice to the current representative of Alimoso in the House of Representatives, Hon Olufemi Adebanjo while Akindele was appointed Mosan-Okunola ES after serving two terms as Vice Chairman to Abiodun Mafe.
Although the name of the state Commissioner for Arts and Culture, Mrs Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf popped up in our investigations, sources close to her said the Commissioner is not interested in running for any elective office for now.
Among the 18 aspirants, 12 are from Agbado/Oke-odo LCDA; three from Mosan-Okunola; two from Alimoso Local Government; while Ayobo-Ipaja LCDA, base of current occupier of the seat, has one contestant, at least for now.
Alimoso State Constituency 1 is made up of: Alimoso LG, Mosan-Okunola LCDA, Agbado/Oke-odo LCDA and Ayobo-Ipaja LCDA.
The fact that Agbado/Oke-odo has lion share of the aspirants is predicated on the fact that the since commencement of the current democratic dispensation, only Agbado/Oke-odo has not had the privilege of representing the Constituency in the state House of Assembly.
Between 1999 and 2003, Adebanjo popularly called Eyes Open from Alimoso LG represented the Constituency while it was the turn of Honourable Onibiyo Adelabu from Mosan/Okunola LCDA who represented the Constituency for two terms, between 2003 and 2011. The current occupier of the seat, Honourable Abdur Rahman Adebisi Yusuf has been representing the Constituency since 2011 and is now in his third term.
The Gazelle News.com's investigations revealed that many of these aspirants may still fall by the wayside. "Many of them are pretenders, the contenders are not up to a quarter of those who have indicated their interest," source told this medium on Sunday morning, 3 April, 2022.
This medium also learnt that some aspirants are still waiting in the wings to indicate their interest.
"You know that many are still waiting for clearance from their political leaders. The Alimoso politics is getting more interesting by the day and some of these aspirants are threading rather softly," our source said.
The race is getting more interesting by the day and The Gazelle News.com will serve you details of this interesting political battle. Very soon, we will unveil the list of the pretenders and contenders to the various elective offices in the Alimoso Federal Constituency, please watch out.
Below is the list of aspirants jostling to replace Bisi Yusuf in the Lagos State House of Assembly at least for now: