By Olasunkanmi Akoni
LAGOS—Protests have continued to trail results announced by Lagos State by the state Independent Electoral Commission, LASIEC, for Saturday’s local council polls, in which Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN won practically all the seats contested for.

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, members, yesterday, took to major highways in the state, seeking for the nullification of the elections, they described as “fraudulent.”

Similarly, African Renaissance Party, ARP, Lagos State chapter has appealed to Federal Government to consider withholding the Lagos State local government council funds in order to calm the political nerve stirred up by LASIEC in the conduct and results released, until all cases were exhausted at the electoral tribunals.

PDP governorship Candidate in the last general elections, Dr. Ade Dosunmu, described the council election as a fraud against the electorate, adding that the results as declared by LASIEC was a painful draw-back to the gains achieved by  Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC during the last general elections.

Dosunmu said, the outcome of the council polls was a monumental fraud of unimaginable proportion and it calls for serious concern.

Meanwhile, National Publicity Secretary of ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has accused PDP-led Federal Government of using the security agencies to subvert democracy in Lagos State, adding that Federal Government must be held responsible for the pre-meditated crisis trailing the just-concluded council polls.

The protests which started last weekend by members of the PDP, took a new dimension as they took their protest to highways disrupting both vehicular and human movement. The PDP is accusing LASIEC of manipulating the result of the election in favour of ACN.

Consequently, the state Police command in collaboration with the state security outfit, Rapid Response Squad, RRS had to be drafted to crises areas, which include: Ikorodu Road, Yaba, Agbado- Ijaiye among others to restore normalcy and ensure protection of lives and property.

Protesters also marched to LASIEC secretariat at  Sabo-Yaba to register their displeasure but were repelled by the armed policemen stationed at the area.

They claimed to have also marched to the premises of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria FRCN, Ikoyi, which also accommodates Voice of Nigeria, VON.

The PDP members, who were on protest to the Birrel’s office of the electoral commission in the early hours of yesterday, alleged that officials of the electoral body had manipulated the result in favour of the ACN candidate, vowing to resist and challenge the action legally.

Similarly, Chief Udoka Udeogaranya, Chairman of ARP in a statement, yesterday, said “it had become imperative for Federal Government to employ some severe measures  to forestall any form of breakdown of law and order, while withholding of Lagos local government council funds certainly will put all parties to the election at peace.”

According to him, “ARP would like to restate that there are no pros to a one party government, as one party government remains a government of dictatorship with full attributes of dictatorial diseases that consumes democracy and democratic rights of the people.”