So much was said heading into the 2023 general elections and even in its aftermath, as well as the governorship elections, prior to the polls taking hold.
Fears were being paraded about the use of violence, and malpractice acts to conduct the political affair; with the overall question being INEC’s capabilities to manage whatever mischief may arise.
However in Epe community, a different story was told as the Local Government Area went against the established narratives heading into the elections, to conduct what was seen as a very free and fair election where no attempts at creating discord was witnessed.
The Epe indigenes respected the process, the INEC officials and acted accordingly to express their franchise, voting majorly for the incumbent governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu in his re-election bid for a second term in office. Sanwo-Olu received the gift of 29, 614 votes from the community compared to the figures his rivals from the PDP or Labour Party were able to churn out from the community.
Like they say in war-time, the Epe community made Sanwo-Olu’s rivals to face what could be seen as a battle on 2 fronts, with the governor coming out the victor in the field of electoral fair play.
But looking into the minds of the people of Epe, it wasn’t about the need to make the incumbent Governor the victor against the oppositions of Gbadebo Rhodes of the Labour Party or Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran of the PDP, but rather the idea to maintain their dreams of a progressive community and State where oneness and development is the goal.
According to Hon. Wale Raji, a member of the community who represents Epe at the federal level, the triumph of the APC shouldn’t be looked at as a victory but as a mandate given by the people to the government.
Wale Raji acknowledged the challenges the community went through trying to vote in the Presidential elections in February 25, admitting that many of its people had to turn up at polling units, hungry yet loyal to the idea of progressiveness.
This notion is well stressed on by Honorable Abiodun Tobun, the Epe Constituency I representative in the House of Assembly, after his bid for re-election was confirmed a success by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
In a quote attributed to Tobun on the morning of him being declared winner of his constituency’s seat in the House of Assembly, he said:
“We are most grateful to our community. We are grateful to them for choosing to be progressive and we promise to bring progress to the people.”
The promise of progress to the community stands what the Epe people believe in the party they feel they have come to relate with.
And in echoing such sentiments, Mr. Udo Emmanuel Okoro who has become a member of the community, urged the All Progressive Congress in the event of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu emerging victorious in the election, along with many others affiliated with the APC and running under its flagship for political posts, to not see it as a victory but a promise to the Epe community and Nigerians in general.
Udo Emmanuel also urged the State government to look into the infrastructural systems within the community and use it as a guide in living up to its promise of a progressive State.
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