Banky W reacts as controversies trail Lagos PDP’s assembly, reps primaries

Banky W, the Nigerian musician-turned-politician, has reacted to the controversies trailing the Peoples Democratic (PDP) primary election in Lagos state.

The musician is vying to secure PDP’s ticket to represent Eti-Osa federal constituency at the house of representatives.

The main opposition party had scheduled its house of assembly and house of representatives primaries in Lagos to hold on Sunday.

It is understood that 140 aspirants are contesting for PDP tickets for the 40 seats in the Lagos house of assembly while 85 people are vying for 24 house reps seats for the state.

But the exercise was marred by delays and protests with some people demanding that it should be cancelled.

NAN reports that uncertainty and apprehension trailed the conduct of the primaries as delegates and aspirants waited at various venues in local government areas for election officers from PDP national headquarters for hours.

Reacting, Banky W expressed confidence that the development would not disrupt the election.

The ‘Strong Thing’ crooner said the delay was to enable the party to get everything right.

“I think that is the reason for the delay; if it takes some more time, there is no problem. As long as it takes, we will be here, we shall stay here till the process is completed,” he said.

He also urged those contesting for the PDP’s tickets to accept the will of the delegates.

“We will all align with whoever has the ticket. You need two things to win: the grace of God and the will of the people,” he added.

“I am very optimistic that I have both, and at the end of the day, that will be clear for everyone to see, and we can move forward together.”

The state chapter of the party had urged the PDP’s national working committee (NWC) to cancel the exercise, citing alleged irregularities in ad-hoc delegates’ list.

At a briefing in Ikeja, Philips Aivoji, Lagos PDP chairman, alleged that the ad-hoc delegates’ list brought by the electoral committees for both primaries had been compromised.

He also claimed that what the electoral committee intends to do is to “cook up” a list of candidates at a venue.

“The entire executive committee of Lagos State PDP and five of the six gubernatorial aspirants reject in its entirety, the ad-hoc delegates’ list brought by the electoral committee to Lagos State for the purpose of conducting the primaries,” he said.

“We are all shocked to see that the list does not reflect the authentic elected ad-hoc delegates as conducted by organs of the party at ward level and supervised by the DSS and INEC.

“It is imperative to state that copies of the ad-hoc list that emanated from the state and submitted to INEC are completely different from the one brought by the committee for the purpose of the exercise.

“We realised that contrary to the provision of our great party and the electoral guidelines of the party, the election committee came to the state with list of venues and already chosen electoral officers.”