IBRAHIM QUADRI
Ahead of the All Progressives Congress, APC primaries for the local government poll in Lagos, leaders of the party in the State have appealed to the aspirants to cooperate with the leadership to have a seamless exercise.
This was the hallmark presentation made by party leaders who spoke on Wednesday during APC stakeholders’ meeting at the party secretariat in Ogba.
The leaders who believed there should be rancour-free primaries noted that the party leadership would adopt consensus in choosing the 57 council chairmanship candidates for the primaries.
The APC electoral committee had last week cleared 432 chairmanship aspirants out of the 470 that submitted the nomination forms. The committee disclosed that 38 aspirants were disqualified or voluntarily withdrew from the race ahead of July 12 council poll in the State.
The ruling party’s primaries are coming up on Saturday, 10th May where all the cleared aspirants for chairmanship and councilorship are to submit themselves for primaries.
The Deputy Governor, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, who represented the Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the party would adopt consensus for the primaries.
Hamzat said, “Let’s do it the way we have been doing, it is going to be a consensus. We will apportion things to one another.”
The chairman of the Electoral committee, Babatunde Ogala SAN said the committee has assembled a formidable team to ensure a hitch-free exercise.
While giving the guidelines for the election, Ogala said there would be indirect primaries.
According to him, the constitution recognizes direct, indirect and consensus primaries, “but for this council primary, we are adopting indirect primaries, the electoral body who are the delegates, have been constituted,” he revealed.
For chairmanship, the designated venue is the party Secretariat in Ogba where all the aspirants will converged. The aspirants are expected to come with only one agent.
The chairman warned that any aspirant who comes with crowd for the primary may be disqualified.
While giving assurance for hitch-free election, he recalled that the committee came up with formidable team during the screening process. “There was no element of influence. I can say that categorically.”
He disclosed that the appeal committee had submitted its report, adding that by Friday, there will be the final list.
“We want you to go back home and go for consensus, so that at the end of the day, nobody should go home empty handed. It is doable, we are appealing to you.”
The chairman assured, “We will not let you down. Our presidency is at stake, our party image is at stake. So many states are trying to learn from us. We are going to be fair and thorough.”
The chairman of the Governance Advisory Council, GAC, Chief Tajudeen Olusi charged aspirants to cooperate with the party leadership.
“We are here to advise you. Since the early days of our democracy, it has always been through consensus. With patience and support, there will be a way out. That is why wisdom is applied in politics,” he noted
He stressed that local government is the closest to the people, he urged the aspirants and their supporters to abide by the advice of the party leaders.
The State chairman of the party, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi said, “Consider yourselves as being privileged to have been chosen out of over 20 million Lagosians.”
While thanking the aspirants for giving support so far, Ojelabi added, “The exercise is going smoothly. We are moving forward. We urge all of you to tolerate one another. The moment we are ready to work together as one family, under one umbrella, we will have seamless primaries.”
He expressed satisfaction over the performance of the party, saying “We are going from strength to strength. From five states, now look at it presently.”
“There is enabling environment for you. All eyes are on us. Mr President is watching whether we will be able to conduct seamless election and if we do this, he will be proud of us,” the chairman stated.
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