By Lukman Olabiyi, Lagos
The shocking defeat of APC candidate and ex-governor in his home state of Lagos in last Saturday’s presidential election has begun to generate serious heat among party chieftains.
The party’s hierarchy is reportedly reviewing strategies adopted for the presidential poll that their candidate lost to Labour Party presidential candidate Mr Peter Obi in order to ascertain where things went wrong.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in declaring the result of the February 25th poll in the state, held that APC received 572, 606 votes, while LP polled 582, 354, to narrowly win the state.
The outcome of the election is considered by many as a blow to Tinubu and the APC’s perceived grip on the state.
Reacting to the result, Dayo Israel, national youth leader of the APC, did not hide his feeling, threatening political appointees in Lagos state who fail to deliver their wards for Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the forthcoming governorship poll to quit.
Sanwo-Olu is seeking re-election as governor of Lagos. He will battle other guber candidates to retain his office on March 11.
In a Twitter post on Monday, Israel said political appointees in the state who fail to deliver the governor’s re-election bid in their respective wards should forget their appointments.
The APC national youth leader, in the now-deleted post, also called on the political appointees to begin a door-to-door campaign for Sanwo-Olu ahead of the election.
“Any appointee in Lagos who doesn’t deliver his ward on the 11th March should not bother coming to Alausa on the 13th. Everyone should drop their tinted car and start walking the street. Knock on your neighbour’s door, beg those you need to beg, and make peace. Deliver for #Sanwoolu,” he wrote.
On investigation, many party members who didn’t want their names in print also accused some party chieftains and political appointees of greediness.
According to them, many party members and stakeholders who worked tirelessly for the party during the campaign were short-changed which killed their morale during Saturday’s poll.
They accused some party chieftains and political appointees of leaving large on the sweat of the party’s foot soldiers without being rewarded
Apart from the issue of short-changing, some party members also attributed the defeat of the party in the state to an internal crisis rocking it over ways and manners some aspirants who had laboured for the party were denied tickets due to godfatherism.