APC: Oshiomhole dismisses cancellation of Lagos gov’ship primary result

The National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has dismissed the cancellation of Lagos State governorship primary by the Electoral Panel headed by Chief Clement Ebri.

The Electoral Panel had claimed that there was no election in Lagos State.

But Oshiomhole after closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday dismissed the cancellation of the result by the Electoral Panel.

Oshiomhole said: “I told the president that the primaries held as planned and everything is being done to ensure there is no violence because democracy doesn’t flourish with violence.

“Nigerians must begin to learn how to differ in opinion and in choice without fighting; this is something people have to acquire over time.

“For me, I’m excited that if we can do it in Lagos, it can be done anywhere”.

Meanwhile, the Lagos APC Chairman, Tunde Balogun, has declared Sanwo-Olu winner of the governorship primary held on Tuesday in the state, beating the incumbent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to second position.

Balogun said Sanwo-Olu scored 970,861, while Ambode scored 72,901 out of the 1.5 million votes cast

But the much awaited APC governorship election primary in Lagos on Tuesday lived up to its billing as one of the most controversial elections in recent electoral history of the state,

as it generated a sharp disagreement between the leadership of the party in the state and members of the Governorship Primary Election Committee seconded to the state by the National Working Committee (NWC) to conduct the election.

While the state chairman of the APC in Lagos, Hon Tunde Balogun, insisted that the election held across the state and witnessed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), without hitches was free, fair and transparent,

the NWC election committee chairman, Mr. Clement Ebri disagreed, saying as at the time he briefed the press at 4.15 pm, they were yet to dispatch election materials to the various local governments and so there was no way the election could have held.

Balogun, who spoke with newsmen earlier, said the election which which held across all the local government had over 1.5 million voters coming out to cast their ballot and the results sheets were endorsed by all the party agents without any controversy.

Balogun said: “I assure you that all the results were signed by agents of both parties and INEC witnessed the election and I am sure some of you witnessed it too.

I want to say as the APC chairman in Lagos State that the election was free and fair and transparent.

“What I got from election observers is that it was properly conducted, constitutionally done. Surely, I am happy, for the fact that the conduct of the election was seamless, free and there was no chaos, no violence and people conducted themselves well.

You all saw the election that was conducted; it was conducted freely, fairly and justly”.

But Ebri flanked by all members of his committee including Alhaji Ahmed Mahmud Gumel, Secretary; Mr. Nze Chidi Duru; Chief Clever Egbeji; Senator Clever Ikisikpo and Ambassador Jerry Ugokwe completely disagreed with Balogun,

saying as far he was concerned, the election was yet to hold, because of last minute adjustment to the method to adopt for the election and the inability of the state party chairman to provide the needed information to assist them in their work in good time.

Ebri said, “Because of the political tension in Lagos, we decided to make our approach methodical and meticulous. As party men, this is more important than who gets the victory.

We want that at the end of the day, the outcome will be celebrated by both parties. When we put a process that will be credible, what we do that will be in line with the guidelines and extant rules and the laws of this country and that is what we have done.

“We are ready to go to the field and execute this and we want to do it in a very clinical fashion, so that at the end of the day we will not be accused of partisanship.

Lagos is very important to us, it is the flagship of the APC and will continue to remain so for years to come and so in doing anything that has to do with Lagos or in conducting any affairs,

we have to do it with a very tender heart, we have to do it with a lot of circumspection, a lot of objectivity, that is what we have done and we are ready to go, to hit the ground running.

“In a short while we will contact the national headquarters and brief them about how far we have gone, because just like INEC does a lot of backroom work for the main show, so much preparation goes into it, that is exactly what we have done.

We are ready to give you the most credible election in the history of Lagos State in the gubernatorial primary. We will contact the national headquarters for further directives with the timing and release of materials, considering the time that this process is concluded.

“It was not our fault at all that this exercise is taking this long, we were waiting for the state chairman of APC to provide certain information that will enable us go on with the process and we needed to be fair to both parties and that information came in about an hour ago.

We have to ensure we balance the process. Now that we are ready, we will contact the national headquarters and we will be informed on when we are to release the materials.

“Considering the terrain of Lagos and the traffic situation, we will put all that into consideration and reschedule the time when we get further directive.

The materials are here, these are result sheets and not a single sheet is missing and it is not possible for this committee to do anything other than what they have been instructed to do.

We have guidelines and we will follow that guidelines and still try as much as possible to be fair to all parties.

Responding to why they took so late in getting ready for the election, Ebri said: “Yesterday (Monday) we held a stakeholders meetings and certain submissions were made and on the basis of those submissions, we contacted the national headquarters and the national headquarters advised us to adjust the procedure in line with the demands.

“Having done that, we now had to reach out to the party representatives to send a list that will be used for the purpose of posting officials to supervise the election, those lists only arrived about an hour ago, so anything that was done without the list that we wanted wasn’t in harmony and like I told you we are more interested in harmony than anything else.

“We had to wait for it, there is no way, I woke up and came here at 8am and waited for 8 or 9 hours without seeing anybody and you expect me to go ahead and do something.

It is only fair that when you don’t see one party, you have to wait, you must be patient and that is what has brought us to this point.”

But Balogun will have none of that as he stopped short of accusing them of being compromised.

Reacting to the briefing shortly after, Balogun argued that the Ebri committee cannot claim that no election took place as well over 1.5 million persons voted, wondering if the committee was going to disenfranchise those people.

He also queried the Protea Hotel, venue of the committee meeting, where they met and held the briefing instead of the party secretariat, noting that the Hotel venue, located in Alausa area of Ikeja was an extension of the Governor’s office.

Earlier, some APC members who are supporters of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had accused the party of shutting them out of the process and in some cases beating up any known Ambode supporter attempting to vote.

While Comrade Olaleye Tunde, from Agege Local Government Area said he witnessed it in his area, Mrs. Oluwabunmi Adetola, from Bariga, Shomolu particularly accused the council chairman of leading thugs to beat people up and refused to allow Ambode supporters to vote.

But the chairman of the Babajide Sanwo-Olu campaign, Mr. Tayo Ayinde, has told newsmen that further decision of the election will be taken today (Wednesday), as both the Ambode and Sanwo-Olu camps have nominated five members of their groups to meet at 6am today to iron out the differences and fashion out the way forward.

Meanwhile, the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has said that though Governor Ambode has done well in office, he has not been a good party man.

For this reason, Tinubu said the party has decided to withdraw support for the governor who wished to go for a second term.

He stressed that the decision to abandon Ambode for Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu was beyond him, adding that he was only doing the wishes of the party, which had entrusted him with its leadership.

Tinubu spoke with journalists at Ward C, Ikeja Local Government Area, after the conclusion of voting in the Lagos APC governorship primary.

Asked why he withdrew his support for Ambode, Tinubu said: “Who did I support in 2014? Ambode. Life is dynamic. It’s those who made me the leader of the structure in Lagos who said it was what they want. It’s only if you have followers that you’re a leader in democracy.

“If I look back and I don’t find them again; if I don’t respond to them, if I fail to accede to their request, I would have failed the leadership test.

“This is not personal; it is beyond me as a person. Every democratic constitution is preceded by ‘We, the people’. So, I had to submit myself to the wishes and the yearnings of our party.

“This is an elixir for the general election. Ambode Akin, he’s doing well, yes; he hasn’t been a good party man; not only the glamour, not only about brick and mortar.

A talent is determined by character. For you to become an influential person, you have to respond to the yearnings of the people. This is politics; democracy, one man, one vote.”

Tinubu dismissed the suggestion that the development in Lagos State could negatively affect the fortune of the party at the national level in 2019.

He also described the direct primary as the best, saying it had helped to eliminate intra-party corruption.