The All Progressives Congress panel sent to Lagos State to conduct the party’s governorship primary has changed its position on the validity of the primary conducted in the state on Tuesday.
Contrary to its earlier position on Tuesday that the primary did not hold, the NWC panel led by Mr Clement Ebri early Wednesday morning said the primary held.
It went on to declare Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the winner of the primary with 970,851 votes ahead of incumbent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who recorded 72,901 votes.
The state chairman of the APC, Mr Tunde Balogun, had at about 9pm on Tuesday declared the same results, despite the insistence of the Ebri-led panel that the primary never held.
Balogun insisted that the poll held and it was valid, contending that it would be unfair to disenfranchise about 1.5 million party members who participated in the poll.
Changing its position to align with Balogun on Wednesday morning, the Ebri panel, in a press statement, said, “After resolving some of the hiccups, the Lagos State APC Governorship Primary Committee collated the results from the 245 wards in the 20 local government areas from the collating officers.
“At the end of the exercise, these are the votes scored by the aspirants: 1. Gov Akinwunmi Ambode, 72,901 votes. 2. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, 970,851 votes.
“Following these results, I, Clement Ebri, the Chairman of the Lagos State APC Governorship Primary Committee hereby declare Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the winner.”
Source: PUNCH