There are strong indications the Lagos State gubernatorial primary billed for Tuesday would be canceled a fourth time, as the election monitoring committee and party bigwigs in the state failed to agree on the mode of the exercise.
The delegates sent by the National Working Committee (NWC) arrived at the state party secretariat in Ikeja at around 5:00 p.m., led by Clement Ebiri. They immediately went into a closed-door meeting with party officials, led by the state chairman, Mr. Tunde Balogun.
After two and a half hours, some other party stalwarts arrived. They proceeded to the main hall of the secretariat and began another round of deliberations. They include: Majority Leader at the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila; Member of the House of Representatives James Faleke; Speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly Mudashiru Obasa; Chairman Bariga LCDA David Kolade; and Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi.
At the end of the meeting, Ebiri told newsmen that the meeting was an interactive session for party members to draw out the basic principles of the primaries scheduled to hold today.“You need to have your membership card and your name must be on the register. If you don’t have your membership card and you have a slip, and your name is on the register, you will vote. I am not aware of the primaries that was held in some places in Lagos today,” he said.
But following his departure with the delegates, the state party chieftains held another closed-door meeting. At its end, Obasa told reporters the primary might not hold, as the state was not ready to abide by the position of the delegates.He said: “Members of the House of Assembly, representatives and party officials were briefed about the coming election. They told us they have directives from Abuja that we should adopt the use of ballot papers, which we, as stakeholders, have rejected. This is based on the fact that we have been earlier informed that the primaries would be a direct one and we have informed all the party members around Lagos.