The Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode has disclosed that he has not conceded any defeat as the Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries election is yet to hold.
According to a statement by Ambode Campaign Organisation (ACO) on Tuesday, said that ‘There are guidelines and procedures which the National Working Committee (NWC) has insisted must be followed in conducting a credible poll.
These include the usage of membership slips and membership cards by registered party members as well as the adoption of secret ballot system which protects the electorate.
The NWC came from Abuja with sufficient ballot papers which are yet to be distributed. As a loyal and responsible party member and a democrat, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is guided by the process announced by the party and shall await the new date of the governorship primary election.
‘We urge all party members and our teeming supporters to remain calm and peaceful and to refuse to be intimidated. Governor Ambode is still very much in the race and is poised to win in order to continue the good works he has been doing in the last three and half years’ the group said.
Recalled that the Chairman of the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Clement Ebri, on Tuesday invalidated the governorship primaries purported to have held across the State, saying that it never authorised such to go ahead when the modalities were not followed as scheduled.
Ebri had said that the APC State Executives failed to turn in the list for officials appointed to supervise the Lagos APC primaries, adding that the list only got to the panel at about 3pm, saying it would have been totally impossible to go ahead with the process without the list.
Ebri said: “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 list that could be utilised for the purpose of posting officials to supervise the elections. Those list only arrived at about an hour ago and so anything that was done without the list that we wanted, because we wanted harmony and I told you, we are more interested in harmony than victory, 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.”
Ebri explained that the Panel also met with representatives of the two governorship aspirants in the Lagos APC primary in the early hours of Tuesday and directed them to furnish the Committee with the names of people who they have appointed to act as party agents for the primary.
“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 party agents so that we could use for this exercise.
“So, we received from one party, a list about one hour ago, and 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. Do you blame me? Will you have expected us to collect 18 from one person and 20 from another person? No. this is all about fairness and equity, this is about integrity and I think that 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,” he explained
Ebri, however, said the Panel would contact the National Headquarters of the Committee and seek further directives on the new date for the governorship Lagos APC primaries.
