Barely 24 hours after the announcement, the Chairman of the committee, Clement Ebri, signed a statement released on Wednesday upholding the declaration of the party executives.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) has made a u-turn from its earlier decision on the validity of the governorship primary election held on Tuesday, and adopted the result of the APC State Executive Council.
The electoral committee had declared the election illegal, insisting that the election never took place as the materials for the election were still in their custody as Tuesday evening, when the counting of votes had concluded in most wards in the state.[story_link align="left"]63563[/story_link]
However, barely 24 hours after the announcement, the Chairman of the committee, Clement Ebri, signed a statement released on Wednesday upholding the declaration of the party executives.
According to the statement, Ebri said having resolved “some of the hiccups”, the committee declared Babajide Sanwo-Olu the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said: “After resolving some of the hiccups, the Lagos State APC Governorship Committee collated the result of 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; Gov. Akinwunmu Ambode 72,901 and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, 970,851.[story_link align="left"]63566[/story_link]
"Following the result, I, Clement Ebri, the chairman of the Lagos State APC Governorship Committee, hereby declare Babajide Sanwo-Olu as the winner."
That was the same position announced by the Party’s State Chairman, Tunde Balogn, on Tuesday night.
SaharaReporters' attempt to get a direct comment from the Chairman via his phone number was not successful as his phone line was switched off. Similarly, the phone number of Clever Egbeji, another committee member, was off.
Sanwo-Olu contested against the incumbent governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, who has faced strong opposition from party leadership, including the national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu.