I didn’t know about my disqualification- APC guber aspirant

A Lagos governorship aspirant, Olawale Oluwo, has said that he was not informed of his disqualification from the race.

The former Lagos commissioner was disqualified alongside AbdulAhmed Mustapha, a former Permanent Secretary.

The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, clinched the party’s ticket at the primary election held in the Onikan area of the state on Wednesday.

The governor got all the votes cast by the delegates.

In a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES shortly after the party primary election, Mr Oluwo said the outcome of the screening by the party’s electoral committee was not communicated to them.

“I cannot understand why the Screening Committee chose not to contact the aspirants screened by them either by phone call, text message, written letter, or any other means of communication, considering their decision to withhold the results of the screening,” he said.

He described the party’s failure to communicate with the aspirants as a “serious breach of aspirants’ fundamental rights to a fair hearing, as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.”

He said the committee also refused to release the result of the screening within 24 hours of concluding the exercise.

Mr Oluwo further said that this will give “participating aspirants an opportunity to appeal the outcome of the screening at the APC Screening Appeals Committee.”

More allegations

Mr Oluwo said the organisers of the election were biased in their selection of delegates.

“According to the organisers of the event, the eligible ‘Delegates’ to vote at the ‘Governorship Primary Election’ are those handpicked by just one of the APC factions in Lagos State, through a sham Delegates Congress purportedly held in the 245 Wards of Lagos State on 18th and 19th of May 2022,” the statement reads.

“The one-sided Congress, which excluded all the other aspiring delegates that bought the APC Delegates Nomination Forms, was conducted in gross violation of the APC Electoral guidelines, APC Constitution and the Electoral Act.

“The Lagos State APC State Exco, headed by one pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, is complicit in the exercise of this blatant rape of democracy in APC Lagos.”

The former commissioner said that some “powerful” persons within the party have decided to prevent him because they are afraid of his “message of a new agenda and accountability in governance.”

He added that he will seek redress from the internal dispute resolution mechanisms of the party.