Again, APC postpones governorship primaries in Lagos

Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has once again postponed it governorship primary for Lagos. The event scheduled to hold on Monday, October 1, 2018, has been shifted to October 2.

The primaries for Enugu and Adamawa states were also shifted to October 4. APC spokesman, Yekini Nabena, in a statement on Monday said the primaries for the two states had also been changed from indirect to direct primaries.

“The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has rescheduled governorship primaries in the Lagos, Enugu and Adamawa states,” Nabena said in the statement.

The Lagos primary, a straight fight between incumbent governor, Akinmumi Ambode and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a former commissioner in his government, has generated tension and bad blood between both men. The crux of the battle was the decision of Bola Tinubu, a former Lagos Governor, and a leading chieftain of the APC, to throw his weight behind Sanwo-Olu.

For weeks Ambode had endured speculations that Tinubu and the Lagos State chapter of the APC were plotting to deny him the party’s governor ticket and hand it instead to Sanwo-Olu. It would eventually emerge that the speculations had substance as the leading lights of the party in the state including members of the state’s House of Assembly abandoned the governor and pitched their tent with Sanwo-Olu.

On Sunday, September 30, Ambode’s angst boiled over. In a televised world press conference, he dismissed his rival for the primary as being not only unfit for the job, psychologically but also for being a felon having been arrested in the United States for being in possession of fake US dollars. he said Sanwo-Olu was also treated for a mental condition at a General Hospital in Lagos.

Moments after Ambode’s allegations, Sanwo-Olu responded and dismissed the allegations insisting he was neither arrested for being in possession of a fake currency in the US nor was he a mental patient at any time in any Lagos hospital.

Hours after Sanwo-Olu’s response, Tinubu intervened on his behalf. He called on party members to reject Ambode, who he said had deviated from the master plan for the development of Lagos State, which he, Tinubu drew up in 1999 when he was governor of the state, and vote for Sanwo-Olu during the primary.

The shift in the date of the primary by the national leadership of the APC is seen as a move by political pundits, to create room for the lessening of the tension created by the crisis and also provide an opportunity for the mending of fences.

In Adamawa where the primary was also postponed to October 2, there had been a disagreement between Governor Jubrilla Bindow and the other aspirants for the position of governor of the state over the nature of the primary. Whereas Governor Biindow and his supporters favour an indirect primary, the other aspirants are demanding a direct primary.

Before the latest announcement of the postponement of the primary election in the three states, Nabena had on Sunday disclosed in a statement the schedule of primaries for Osun and Kwara States.

“For Kwara, the schedule of activities are as follows; Monday, October 1 – House of Assembly Screening, Tuesday, October 2 – Senate Primary, Wednesday, October 3 – House of Representatives Primary, Thursday, October 4 – Governorship Primary and Friday, October 5– House of Assembly Primary.

“For Osun State schedule of activities are;
Monday, October 1 to Tuesday, October 2–House of Assembly Screening, Wednesday, October 3–House of Assembly Primary, Thursday, October 4–House of Representatives Primary and Friday, October 5th, 2018-Senate Primary,” Nabena said.

In the same statement, the APC spokesman announced that the party had expelled the Ishola Balogun-Fulani led Kwara State executive of the party. He said the Balogun-Fulani-led executive was dissolved by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC over allegations of anti-party activities. He said following the dissolution, the executive, believed to be loyal to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who left the APC for the PDP, went to court and obtained an injunction.

“The National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expelled the Alh. Ishola Balogun-Fulani led Kwara State executive from the Party,” Nabena said in the statement.