Lagos APC Guber Primaries: Why Sanwo-Olu’s contenters weren’t on ballot paper – Yuguda

By Lukman Olabiyi, Lagos

The Chairman of the Electoral Committee of Lagos All Progressives Congress (APC), Governorship Primary, Shettima Yuguda, has revealed the reason two aspirants in the exercise were not on the ballot paper for the exercise.

Apart from Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, two other contenders for the party’s governorship ticket are Olawale Oluwo, a former Commissioner for Energy and Minerals Resources and Abdul-Ahmed Mustapha, a former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy and Minerals Resources, both served under immediate past administration of Governor Akinwumi Ambode.

Mustapha resigned about 14 months ago from the governor’s administration and declared to vie against Sanwo-Olu, picking up the N50 million governorship form of the party.

The contenders were on Thursday prevented from participating in the ongoing exercise at Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Lagos Island, venue.

Reacting to the development, Yuguda, claimed that Mustapha was not cleared by the screening committee of the party because of certain issues concerning the certificate.

According to him, “We have three aspirants, one was cleared, and two others were not cleared when they showed up in Abuja.

“They were not cleared by the screening committee, and appeal committee.

“Apparently, only one was cleared, find out from the aspirants why they were not cleared.

“But if you ask me if you were not cleared for an exercise, what are you going to do there, what is your business there.”

However, the barred aspirant, Mustapha had claimed that he was in Abuja two weeks ago for the screening without informing him of the outcome.

He said the Secretary of the primary election committee, Bashir Mohammed, turned him back on Thursday, saying that he was not cleared and as such cannot be given accreditation access to the venue.

Mustapha said, “We were told that we were not cleared by the leadership of the party and as such, they only gave accreditation tags to those that were cleared.

“We went to Abuja for clearance two weeks ago. The results of the clearance were not communicated to us.

“We went to the APC state secretariat at Acme Road yesterday (Wednesday), we tried to get our accreditation tags but we were not given. We were there till 7 am this morning before going to the venue of the primary.”