The All Progressives Congress (APC) has slated its primaries ahead of the local government elections for this Saturday in Lagos, just as leaders of the party have appealed to the aspirants to cooperate with the leadership for a seamless exercise by fielding consensus candidates for all positions.
These decisions were taken following party leaders’ meeting with stakeholders held at the party secretariat in Ogba on Wednesday.
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 the July 12 council poll in the state.
The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, who represented the Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the party would adopt consensus for the primaries.
“Let’s do it the way we have been doing, it is going to be a consensus. We will apportion things to one another,” Hamzat said.
The chairman of the Electoral committee, Babatunde Ogala, SAN, said the committee has assembled a formidable team to ensure hitch-free exercise.
While giving the guidelines for the election, Ogala said there would be indirect primaries.
According to him, the constitution recognises 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.”
For chairmanship, the designated venue is the party Secretariat in Ogba, where all the aspirants would converge. The aspirants are expected to come with only one agent.
The chairman warned that any aspirant who comes with a crowd for the primary might be disqualified.
While giving assurance for hitch-free election, he recalled that the committee came up with a 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 would 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,” he said.
Segun James
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