The Governor’s Advisory Council of the Lagos chapter of the All Progressives Congress on Saturday endorsed Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu for the party’s governorship ticket in 2019.
Sanwo-Olu is a former Commissioner for Training and Establishment in the state.
SUNDAY PUNCH gathered that the six-hour meeting held at the Bourdillon, Ikoyi, Lagos, residence of the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Tinubu also chaired the meeting attended by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila and Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, among others.
The Lagos APC governorship primary was earlier scheduled to hold today but was shifted by the party’s national leadership for logistic reasons.
Earlier, supporters of the incumbent governor, Akinwunmi Ambode and Sanwo-Olu, who wore vests bearing images of their preferred candidates with inscriptions, had thronged the party state secretariat on Acme Road for a stakeholders’ meeting called by the party leadership.
The supporters waited for hours and some later left the venue after it became clear that Tinubu would not be coming as many of them had hoped.
Many party leaders in the state had backed Sanwo-Olu for governor and moved against the second-term ambition of Ambode who had also expressed readiness to contest the primary.
Sources close to the party leaders told SUNDAY PUNCH that Ambode had refused a directive that he should step down during a meeting with Tinubu on Friday, saying democracy should be allowed to thrive by allowing him to contest the primary.
After the Bourdillon meeting on Saturday, a member of the council and party chieftain, Senator Anthony Adefuye, arrived in the secretariat to announce the council’s decision to the eager stakeholders.
Adefuye said the council, the highest decision-making body of the chapter, had endorsed Sanwo-Olu for the party’s governorship ticket, saying the decision was in the interest of the party and state.
He said, “We started the meeting at 10am and we left straight after the meeting not to keep you waiting. The GAC and other major stakeholders have endorsed Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu wants me to apologise that he is not here (secretariat) because as we were coming, he was bombarded in the house by various programmes of the party.’’
After his short speech, supporters of Sanwo-Olu jubilated while Ambode’s protested against the decision with songs.
It was gathered, however, that Tinubu would have been at the secretariat himself to raise Sanwo-Olu’s hand as a mark of endorsement but for the report that Ambode’s supporters had yet left the venue.
