Stunned by their defeat at the hands of the Labour Party, the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress is now leaving no stone unturned to forestall the repeat of the ignominy in the Governorship elections slated for March 11 as the party is now perfecting strategy that would ensure the victory of Governor Babajide Sanwoolu.
The party has been thrown into a panic mood given the unexpected performance of the Labour Party which defeated the APC by almost 11, 000 votes in Saturday’s presidential elections and there were fears they could be unseated for the first time.
However, our correspondent reliably gathered that the leadership of the APC had identified remote and immediate causes of the embarrassing loss and it is already addressing them.
Iwitnesslive learnt that the party is fractured by internal crisis across the state and the leadership did nothing to address the issue before going to polls.
“There is a huge disaffection among party members, stemming from the attitude of our leaders who have arrogantly carried on as if others don’t matter. Many of the decisions they take usually cause disharmony but they don’t care and wouldn’t even appease those who are aggrieved as if the party belongs to only them,” a member of the APC who sought anonymity told our correspondent.
Another member who works in the party headquarters said, “There is no local government where we don’t have a crisis within the party in Lagos; people have been short-changed in a manner that is brutal; they are hurt but our leaders don’t care. There is also a big disconnect between the leadership and the members, people assumed they are now lords once they assume some big positions within the party, people would be suffering but they wouldn’t help.”
Our correspondent also learnt members accused the leadership of ‘cornering’ campaign funds as rank and file were ignored in the disbursement of money.
An influential member of the party who contested the House of Assembly ticket told our correspondent that the party refused to
“Members have been using their money to campaign and the hope that our party would later release funds but the presidential elections has gone, and they are yet to release this funds. The good thing is that they have released their mistakes, and I can tell you that they have now promised to reach out in the coming days so that our members can be mobilised ahead of the governorship elections.
“I was at the campaign office on Wednesday and I was impressed by the plans; they are reaching out to everybody and trying to resolve the grievances of members so that we can approach the March 11 elections with common purposes,” he said.
