Lagos APC adopts direct primary for 2019 elections

Aspirants vying for various elective positions under the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos will face direct primary.

Bola Tinubu, national leader of the party, announced this at a stakeholders’ meeting held at the party’s secretariat on Acme Road, Ogba, Lagos, on Tuesday.

He said the party would immediately commence the process of registering new members, while the old members who had registered before now as well as the new members would all be issued membership cards.

“We appeal to all members to update the membership registration and embrace the direct primary that has just been introduced and adopted by our party,” he said.

“We are committed to our party; we are committed to the values of the party; we see direct primary as President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption and internal democracy revolution.

“We are going to embrace that in which the party is going back to the owners of the party and that is you the people. It is not we the few; it is we the people. We have embraced democracy and you have your decisions to be made but you have to be members of our party in the first place.”

Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of the state, commended Tinubu for kick-starting the “revolution for direct primary”, saying the process would go a long way to deepen democracy in the country.

“There is no better time to appreciate our national leader (Tinubu) than now. What we have just witnessed is the beginning of a revolution about the deepening of democracy in Nigeria,” he said.

“People might not understand what is going on but we are giving power to the people and it is starting from APC. So, we want to collectively say a big thank you to Asiwaju for championing this silent revolution and it is very simple; what we are saying is that if we know that Lagos State is truly controlled by APC, we would champion a revolution that has never been witnessed before in this country and that means each member of our great party will now determine who becomes the president of this country and by so doing, we create the championship that Lagos State has the votes and Lagos State has the numbers to make things happen in this country.”