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The All Progressives Congress (APC), National Working Committee (NWC) has explained why it cancelled the Lagos governorship primary election that took place earlier in the day.
The APC electoral panel disowned the Tuesday exercise and announced that it would organise a fresh one.
The panel, made up of Clement Ebri (chairman), Ahmed Mahmud Gumel (secretary), Chidi Duru, Clever Egbeji, Clever Ikisikpo and Jerry Ugokwe, addressed the media in the afternoon to deny knowledge of the primary that was held.
Ebri said at the press conference: “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 the list that could be utilised for the purpose of posting officials to supervise the elections. The list only arrived at about an hour ago and so anything that was done without the list that we wanted, because we wanted harmony, 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.”
He said the primary would start any moment “from now”, although he also said he was waiting for further instructions from the national headquarters.
In the rejected primary, Jide Sanwoolu, backed by a national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, beat Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in all the wards.