The Youth Party has criticised the conduct of the Lagos State Local Government Election held on Saturday, July 12, 2025, describing the exercise as a “shambolic” and “blatantly rigged” in favour of the All Progressives Congress.
This comes as the Labour Party also rejected the outcome of the election, describing the exercise as a “dangerous blueprint for electoral fraud” ahead of the 2027 general election.
The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission, on Sunday, declared candidates of the APC as winners of the 57 chairmanship seats contested during the election.
The party also won 375 out of 376 councillorship positions in the local government election, with the PDP winning one ward.
In a press statement issued on Sunday and signed by the Chairman of the Youth Party’s Lagos chapter, Francisco Doregos, the party accused LASIEC of orchestrating widespread electoral malpractice and voter suppression.
“Expectedly, the Lagos State Local Government Elections were shambolic and blatantly rigged against our candidates with reckless and shameless abandon,” Doregos stated.
He alleged that LASIEC had been compromised from the outset, citing the appointment of commissioners who were “openly competitive APC politicians.”
He said the electoral body failed to fulfil key legal obligations, including giving adequate notice for the election and displaying the voters’ register as required by law.
The party also accused security agencies of being weaponised against its candidates.
Despite the irregularities, the Youth Party said it performed better than other opposition parties in areas where its candidates contested.
“We were obviously the preferred party without rigging,” Doregos said.
“We emerged as the most preferred choice across the polling units where we fielded candidates, outperforming the PDP, AA, ZLP and other opposition parties,” he added.
The Chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the LP, Senator Nenadi Usman, in a statement issued in Abuja by her Senior Special Adviser on Media, Ken Asogwa, accused the APC of orchestrating a brazen manipulation of the electoral process with the alleged complicity of LASIEC.
According to her, the APC’s sweeping victory, securing all 57 council chairmanship seats and 375 out of 376 councillorship positions, was not only “shameless” but also “unprecedented in Nigeria’s electoral history.”
The statement partly read, “The farce that played out in Lagos on Saturday under the guise of council election has once again exposed the APC as a party allergic to democratic principles and due process.
“The audacity with which LASIEC officials collaborated openly with APC operatives represents a new low.”
The Labour Party claimed that its agents across the state reported widespread irregularities, including ballot boxes pre-stuffed with thumb-printed ballots and LASIEC officials arriving at polling units with pre-filled result sheets even before voting commenced.
“While no one expects electoral decency from the APC, we had hoped they would at least pretend. Even that pretence has now been discarded,” the statement noted.
The party urged its supporters to remain calm and law-abiding but demanded the immediate cancellation of the election results.
It also called for a fresh, transparent process that would reflect the will of the people.
“Lagos, known as the Centre of Excellence, should not be reduced to a theatre of electoral absurdity. What happened on Saturday is a clear red flag—one that all true democrats in Nigeria should be alarmed by,” Asogwa warned.
