THE TRAVAILS OF EPE FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY

 

Historical Background

Epe Federal Constituency comprises Epe Central and Epe North which is further broken down to comprise Epe LGA, Eredo LCDA and Ikosi/Ejinrin LCDA.

 

Since the inception of the new democratic dispensation which began in 1999, almost 24years ago, Epe Central has occupied the House of REPS position for four terms while EREDO has had it for two terms. 

Below are the personalities that have occupied the post:

Late Hon. Stephen Banjo EPE 1999-2003 (1 Term)

Late Tunde Salau EREDO 2003-2007 (1 Term)

Hon. Bola Gbabijo EPE 2007-2011 (1 Term)

Hon. Lanre Odubote EREDO 2011-2015 (1 Term)

Hon. Wale Raji EPE 2015 till date  (2 Terms)     

To the utter dismay of the indigenes of Ikosi/Ejirin area of Epe federal constituency who have been at a disadvantaged position since inception of the present political dispensation, Epe Central had used the most part of the seat till date.

Further investigation revealed that only Late Dr. Bayo Amure  who won the seat on two occasions, first in 1983 and this  was truncated by the Buhari coup after only three months in office and also truncated again in 1992  by the Abacha coup after only two months in office.

Current Situation:

Presently, the House of Representatives seat is occupied by Hon.Wale Raji, a retired Permanent Secretary from the State Civil service who hails from Epe Central and who has been in office since 2015 and now seeks a third term that would run till 2027 making it a total of 12 years in office. 

Hon. Wale Raji has been the only candidate to occupy the MHR seat twice (2) terms, which is unprecedented in the history of Epe Federal constituency. 

The Ikosi/Ejinrin zone has presented aspirants who seek to take the seat for the first time since 1999 after an appreciable length of time away from representation but are always  sidelined by other interest groups within and outside the zone.

It is worthy to note that from the survey carried out , the current house of assembly seat for Epe North is situated in Eredo(LCDA)Zone, also Eredo has representation in the State Executive Cabinet in the capacity of a Special Adviser. 

The Ejinrin district currently occupies the Local Government Chairman seat, also occupies the party State Vice Chairman seat, representing East senatorial zone of the state and a State cabinet seat in the capacity of Special Adviser.

The Ejinrin district has also in the immediate past, occupied the House of assembly seat for 8 years, whose tenure ended in 2019.  But Agbowa Ikosi district which controls 4 wards has been left out with nothing since 2007.

It is equally worthy of note that  investigations reveal that the Epe constituency voting patterns in the last two general elections all indicate that the votes from the sidelined zone (Agbowa Ikosi) have won the constituency on all occasions. 

The Agbowa Ikosi zone were said to have presented aspirants for the current elections , who after having gone through the entire process of expressing interest, screening and were  integrated in all  stages of due process prescribed by the party,were disenfranchised by being left out of the just concluded primaries.

The concerned indigenes of Epe Federal constituency with particular emphasis on Ikosi Ejinrin are hereby petitioning the leadership in the true spirit of Democracy, equity, fair-play and peace,  to have a rethink and do the right thing by ensuring that the forthcoming  Federal House of Representatives slot/ticket is zoned appropriately ,so that the indigenes of Epe can troop out en masse and support the candidacy of the party at the 2023 general elections. 

All pointers indicate that anything short of this will further encourage voter apathy within the zone..