NWC, party members disagree on validity of APC governorship primary election in Lagos

The National Working Committee panel of the All Progressives Congress sent from Abuja to monitor the party’s governorship primary in Lagos State has insisted that the outcome of the election on Tuesday cannot be allowed to stand.

Reports from several wards across the state had seen governorship aspirant Babajide Sanwo-Olu in an unassailable lead.

But the NWC said the election could not have held because the committee was still expecting the full list of representatives of one of the two aspirants as at 4pm.

The panel’s Chairman, Clement Ebiri, said as he the press in Alausa, Ikeja, that the NWC would ensure that the aspirants were given a level playing field.

“First and foremost, yesterday (Monday) we held a stakeholders meeting; certain submissions were made and on the basis of these submissions, I contacted the national headquarters and they asked us to adjust the procedures in line with the provisions,” he said Tuesday evening.

“We had a session with the representatives of both aspirants, they were here as early as 8am and at that meeting we discussed some of these modalities and asked them to furnish us with names of people who will act as agents for this exercise.

“So, we received the list from one party about one hour ago. At one point, they brought a list for seven local governments out of 20 and about five hours later, they brought list for 11. Even the other two local governments have not been provided till this moment (4pm). Do you blame me? Will you have expected us to collect 18 from one person and 20 from another person? No,” he said.

He went on to say that the committee was all about fairness, as he displayed empty result sheets to indicate that the primary did not hold officially.

“This is all about fairness and equity and I think at the end of the day, what we did was the best. I couldn’t have collected materials and say because the other party didn’t come, I give to the other person and say go and conduct the election.

“Because of the political tension in the state, we decided to be very careful, very methodical and very meticulous. As party men, peace is more important to us than victory. We want victory that will be celebrated by both parties. We are ready to go to the field and execute this in clinical fashion so that at the end of the day we will not be accused of partisanship,” he said.

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The committee members further declared that the election had been cancelled.

The Chairman of the Lagos APC, Tunde Balogun, however, said the results will stand, describing the process as transparent.

“The results were signed by the agents of the two aspirants. The results were credible because INEC officials were there to witness the exercise; there was no violence.

“The election was properly conducted; constitutionally done and we leave the rest for the people. The conduct of the election was seamless and there was no chaos,” he said.