Members of the APC electoral
panel sent from Abuja to conduct the Lagos governorship primary had a secret
meeting with Akinwunmi Ambode, the state governor, on Monday, insiders have revealed.
The Clement Ebri-led committee
was “holed up” at their hotel till 1pm on Tuesday while voting went on at the
245 wards in Lagos, with results showing Jide Sanwo-Olu clearly in the lead.
But the committee later came out
to disown the election, announcing that it was going to conduct a fresh
primary.
Balogun protested against the
request, pointing out that it was improper since Ambode was one of the
aspirants in the election.
The committee met with the governor on Monday |
A senior party official revealed that: “The committee members insisted that they must see Ambode. Balogun
took them to Alausa to see him. After the photo session, Ambode invited the
committee members for a private meeting.
“Balogun followed them in, but
Ambode asked him to excuse them because he wanted a private chat. Balogun then
left. After about 30 minutes, the committee members came out and said the
governor had arranged Protea Hotel in Ikeja for them. They rejected the hotel
provided by the state chapter of APC.
“They then went to the hotel
while some interesting bags followed them later. They stayed in that hotel with
two members of the Ambode campaign team. They were there all through Monday
night till 1pm on Tuesday after party members had voted.”
Ebri announcing a fresh primary on Tuesday |
The committee later addressed the
media late Tuesday afternoon to deny knowledge of the primary that was held.
Ebri said at the press
conference: “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.
“Having done that, we now had to
reach out to the party executives to submit the ist that could be utilised for
the purpose of posting officials to supervise the elections. The list only
arrived at about an hour ago and so anything that was done without the list
that we wanted, because we wanted harmony, so we had to wait for them.
“There was no way we could have
gotten up at 8am, sat down in this place for about eight to nine hours without
seeing anybody and then I would go ahead and do something. It is only fair that
when you don’t see one party, you have to wait and be patient and that is what
has brought us to point.”
He said the primary would start
any moment “from now”, although he also said he was waiting for further
instructions from the national headquarters.
Ambode has fallen out of favour
with his godfather, Bola Tinubu, who has now openly canvassed for Sanwo-Olu.
Habib Aruna, chief press
secretary to Ambode, could not be reached for comments as he neither answered
calls nor replied a text message sent to him.
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