{"id":12339,"date":"2018-10-02T19:16:47","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T19:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=12339"},"modified":"2018-10-02T19:16:47","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T19:16:47","slug":"lagos-apc-primary-cancelled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=12339","title":{"rendered":"Lagos APC primary cancelled; not true, says Lagos APC Chairman"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"main-header\">\n<div class=\"top-menu sticky-scroll-up contain-to-grid show-for-small-only\">\n<nav class=\"top-bar\" data-topbar=\"\" data-sticky_height=\"0\" data-distance=\"245\" data-options=\"sticky_on: small; back_text: Back\">Additional reports by <strong>NAN<\/strong>.The APC National Working Committee (NWC) panel on Tuesday cancelled the exercise that took place earlier in the day in the Lagos governorship primary election, saying the preparatory process for the election had just been concluded.<br \/>\nHowever, Lagos APC Chairman, Tunde Balogun, disagrees. Confronted by journalists, Mr. Balogun said: &#8220;I am the chairman of this party and I cannot disenfranchise over 1.5m people that took part in this exercise all over the state. It would be unfair; it would be unjust to do so.<\/p>\n<div id=\"page\" class=\"site\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid wrapper col-sm-9 col-md-9 col-lg-9\">\n<div id=\"content\" class=\"site-content container-fluid\">\n<div id=\"primary\" class=\"content-area\">\n<article id=\"post-583959\" class=\"post-583959 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-politics tag-apc-primaries tag-lagos tag-lagos-apc pmpro-has-access\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n\u201cThe basic thing for direct primaries is to have people accredited. Once you have them accredited, count the number that has decided to queue behind any aspirant of their choice. That\u2019s all what happened today and we did that openly and everybody on their own free will queued up behind candidate of their choice.&#8221;\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer id=\"colophon\" class=\"site-footer\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n<div id=\"footer-nav-bottom\" class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-md-2 col-sm-2\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"col-md-2 col-sm-2\">\n<div class=\"menu-footer5-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Chairman of the APC panel, Chief Clement Ebri, spoke at a news conference in Alausa, Ikeja.<br \/>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"inner_wrapper\" class=\"inner_wrapper hide-on-mobile-menu \">\n<div class=\"row full-width\">\n<div class=\"inner_content\">\n<div class=\"row has-sidebar\">\n<div class=\"post-107162 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-headlines category-news category-politics tag-akinwunmi-ambode tag-babajide-sanwo-olu tag-chief-clement-ebri tag-lagos-governorship-primary\">\n<div class=\"row vc_row in-container\">\n<div class=\"medium-8 column left\">\n<article id=\"post-107162\" data-postid=\"107162\" data-guid=\"https:\/\/www.nan.ng\/?p=107162\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.nan.ng\/news\/just-in-lagos-governorship-primary-nullified\/\">\n<div class=\"row collapse article-content-wrap\">\n<div class=\"small-12 medium-9 right column\">\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"post-body xt-post-content\">\n\u201cThe preparatory process had just been concluded for the primaries. The primary\u00a0 is to begin anytime soon.<br \/>\n\u201cThere was no election. Election materials are being sorted. \u201cThe stage is set and election begins anytime from now. We have guidelines and we will stick to the guidelines.<br \/>\n\u201cBecause of the political tension in the state, we decided to be very careful, very methodical. As party men, peace is more important to us than victory.<br \/>\n\u201cWe want a kind of victory that will be celebrated by both parties.<br \/>\n\u201cWe want an election that will be credible and in line with the guidelines, the extant rules and the laws of the country.<br \/>\n\u201cAnd that is what we have done. We are ready to go to the field and execute this. So that at the end of the day, we will not be accused of partisanship. Lagos is very important to us and it is a flagship of the APC,\u201d Ebri said.<br \/>\nHe said that the panel was ready to give the most credible primary to the state and would contact the national headquarters for information on the preparatory process.<br \/>\n\u201cIt takes a lot of work for the main show to take place.<br \/>\n\u201cWe are ready to give the state the most credible election.<br \/>\n\u201cWe will contact the national headquarters on the timing for the release of materials. It is not our fault that this exercise took this long.<br \/>\nEbri said the panel was waiting for the party chairman, Alhaji Tunde Balogun, to provide certain information that would enable them post people to the wards.<br \/>\n\u201cWe have two aspirants and we need to be fair to both parties. The information we demanded for came in about an hour ago. And we had to struggle this period to balance the equation.<br \/>\nNow that we are ready, we will contact the national headquarters on the situation and the right time will be announced,\u201d Ebri said.<br \/>\nHe said that five persons from the local organising committee and four for each ward would be posted .<br \/>\n\u201cThey will all go out to ensure the primary is conducted. We all understand the terrain in the state especially as it concerns the traffic situation. So, the materials are available now and ready for deployment.<br \/>\n\u201cThe national secretariat advised us to use ballot papers and we came into Lagos with thousands of them. But during the stakeholders meeting, it became obvious that the state chapter of the party was not ready for such primary.<br \/>\n\u201cThey claimed that there was time to educate the members and others. And based on the submission made at the stakeholders meeting on Monday, some changes were made,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nEbri said the panel was advised to conduct the open ballot in a manner that would be objective to all parties.<br \/>\n\u201cAnd that is one of the adjustment we made to accommodate views of the stakeholders. For us, the stage is set and the primary should commence any moment from now,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nEarlier,the chairman Lagos APC, Balogun said the election held and it was free fair and credible.<br \/>\nWhen asked if the panel supervised the election, he said he would not be able to answer that.<br \/>\nAccording to Balogun, he only saw observers and could not tell.<br \/>\n\u201cWe are awaiting the panel to declare the result,\u201d he said.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Additional reports by NAN.The APC National Working Committee (NWC) panel on Tuesday cancelled the exercise that took place earlier in the day in the Lagos governorship primary election, saying the preparatory process for the election had just been concluded. However, Lagos APC Chairman, Tunde Balogun, disagrees. Confronted by journalists, Mr. Balogun said: &#8220;I am the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}