The Chairman of the Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) Alhaji Babatunde Balogun and the Chairman of the electoral committee set by the National Working Committee (NWC) Clement Ebri have taken divergent positions on the governorship primaries conducted in the state on Tuesday.
The Lagos APC chairman insisted that the election was credible, fair and transparent as there was no case of violence recorded in all the 245 wards where election took place.
Balogun said that the election and the results declared are valid. “I am the APC chairman in Lagos State and I can’t disenfranchise about 1.5 million people that took part in this exercise all over the state.
“The election stands of course, it stands because the election was conducted according to the constitution. The guideline has been drawn, the basic rule for direct primary is to get accredited, count the number of those who queued behind any aspirant of their choice.
” That is what happened today and the people did that openly on their own free will.”
But the NWC electoral panel has dissociated itself from the primaries.
The panel’s chairman reporters yesterday in the hotel where the panel members lodged at Ikeja, said he had nothing to do with the primaries.
Ebri urged Lagosians, particularly members of the APC to disregard the results of the election in the state as no state party official is empowered to accredit or conduct governorship primary.
As a result, he said the electoral committee is set to conduct fresh primaries, from where the Lagos APC governorship candidate will emerge. However, Ebri was not categorical on when the fresh primaries will hold.
He said: “We have to do things right. We have just concluded preparation of the primaries. The returning officers and other officials for the ward where the election will take place are around.
” We want a kind of victory that will be celebrated by both sides; we want to conduct primary that follows the guidelines and that is credible.
“We are going to the field to do it with objectivity and make sure it is reliable. I will contact the national secretariat for directives.
“Like INEC, we the electoral committee members do a lot of work behind the scene. So, the most credible primary in Lagos APC is our target. We have been waiting for the Lagos APC chairman to give us information needed to kick off the exercise. He has provided us the information.”
Justifying the authenticity of the governorship primary held yesterday, Balogun said the election “had taken place, did you (journalists) see what happened today. You saw some observers, INEC officials were there to observe the primary.
” A large number of you were at different wards were elections were conducted in Lagos. And of course, the primary election took place in all the 245 wards in Lagos State. Did you experience violence anywhere? Not a single case of violence was reported. It was peaceful, fair and transparent.
“The number of voters on queue were counted and recorded under INEC supervision. I don’t see anything wrong about that. It was a direct primary and that is what we did. There was no fault in that processes, so the election stands.”
