An All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship aspirant in Lagos State, Samuel Ajose, has criticised moves towards a consensus arrangement following the endorsement of Obafemi Hamzat.
Ajose, who spoke on The Morning Show on Arise Television, questioned the rationale behind the decision, especially after aspirants had already purchased nomination forms.
He said his ambition is driven by the need to represent neglected communities, particularly in Badagry.
The aspirant argued that adopting consensus after selling forms to multiple contenders undermines the credibility of the process.
Ajose said: “So I’m not just in this race just because of myself. I’m in this race because I’m representing the people that have been neglected for 57 years. And what the Badagry people are saying is that, are we not part of Nigeria? Are we not part of Lagos?
“So if we are not part of Lagos, then they should come out and tell us that this is where we belong to.
“Whatever we’re doing, we’re not doing it for myself. We’re doing it in the interest of the people. And you have to also look at it, we have picked up the form. I was the first person that picked up the form from Lagos State among all the aspirants and all of that yesterday.
“If our leadership in Lagos had decided that they wanted to go by consensus, then they shouldn’t have been selling the forms to us. A whole lot of people have invested money in these forms, and you just come and give us the shocker.
“How do you come about consensus when you don’t even know how many people are contesting in the race, you don’t know their temperament, you don’t know where they are coming from, and you are selling forms to them.
“Everybody is picking the forms, and all of a sudden you just said you have consensus.
“We don’t have any problem because consensus is part of the constitution of Nigeria. Our direct primary is also part of the constitution of Nigeria. So if they want to get it done, then there are processes.
“There are mechanisms they need to put in place to get everybody together so that there won’t be rancor in the house. We are not in a battle. We’re in a contest. And we kept saying that we are in the contest, and the contest needs to be free and fair.”
