Why only two aspirants contest against Sanwo-Olu barred from Guber Primary venue – Yuguda

A former deputy governor of Borno State and the chairman of the Lagos State Governorship Primary Election Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Shettima Yuguda, has revealed the reasons why two aspirants were barred from the venue of the primary.

NEWSFLASH NIGERIA had earlier reported that the Lagos State Governorship Primary Election Committee of APC had on Thursday, barred one of the aspirants from the venue of the primary.

One of the contenders of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Abdul-Ahmed Mustapha, a former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Minerals Resources was barred from the venue of the primary at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in the Surulere area of the state.

The other contestant is Olawale Oluwo, a former Commissioner for Energy and Minerals Resources under the immediate past administration of Governor Akinwumi Ambode was also barred.

Mustapha resigned about 14 months ago and declared to vie against Sanwo-Olu picking up the N50 million governorship form of the party.

Reacting to the development, Yuguda, claimed that Mustapha was not cleared by the screening committee of the party because of certain issues concerning the certificate.

According to him, “We have three aspirants, one was cleared, and two others were not cleared when they showed up in Abuja.

“They were not cleared by the screening committee, and appeal committee.

“Apparently, only one was cleared, find out from the aspirants why they were not cleared.

“But if you ask me if you were not cleared for an exercise, so what are you going to do there, what is your business there.”

However, the barred aspirant, Mustapha had claimed that he was in Abuja two weeks ago for the screening without the committee members informing him of the outcome.

He said the Secretary of the primary election committee, Bashir Mohammed, turned him back on Thursday, saying that he was not cleared and as such cannot be given accreditation access to the venue.

Mustapha when contacted, said, “Just spoke to the Sec of the committee. He was indirectly telling me that we are not cleared and as such cannot be given accreditation access to the venue

“We were told that we were not cleared by the leadership of the party and as such, they only gave accreditation tags to those that were cleared.

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“We went to Abuja for clearance two weeks ago. The results of the clearance were not communicated to us.

“We went to the APC state secretariat at Acme Road yesterday (Wednesday), we tried to get our accreditation tags but we were not given. We were there till 7 am this morning before going to the venue of the primary.”

Sanwo-Olu, the endorsed candidate by the National Leader of APC, Bola Tinubu, is seeking re-election.

Mustapha, earlier, speaking on why he was challenging his former boss, said, “Because we strongly believe we have a better model that will help further accelerate the development of the state.

“There is a Master Plan put in place by Asiwaju (Tinubu), built on by BRF (Babatunde Raji Fashola), and built on by (Akinwunmi) Ambode. If other states are going at 3%, Lagos should be going at 9% to account for the mirage challenges in healthcare, education, energy and other sectors.

“We believe passionately that we have a better model and it that belief that is propelling us.

“I have some experience working for the City of New York, and understanding how the city was put together. Such a model is really transmittable and we can accelerate the development of Lagos State.”

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