Why we chose Lagos for presidential primary, by Fayemi

CLEARED: From left: Nda-Isaiah, Okorocha, Atiku, Gen. Buhari and Kwankwaso with their clearance...yesterday

The Chairman of the National Convention Committee of the All Progressives Congress(APC), Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said the choice of Lagos as the convention venue was not meant to coronate any of the five presidential aspirants.

He said the committee will not work towards a preconceived answer of the National Chairman of APC or any party leader.

He said he had come into the assignment with nothing but his integrity and the committee would be fair to all.

Fayemi said: “Indeed some aspirants wrote to us wanting the convention committee to still stick to Abuja  but since everything we are doing is   open and  transparent, in fact all aspirants have representatives in the committee and they were part of all the discussions that transpired before we arrived at Lagos, so we were able to convince them.

“I then chose to meet with all the presidential aspirants because I felt it was important for me to explain to them as the chairman of the convention committee on why we arrived at Lagos. By the time I finished with the explanation they could see that the choice of Lagos was not an arbitrary decisionÿ or accidental choice.

“We  looked at other option. We looked at Port Harcourtÿ Benin and Lagos. We  felt that all of the factors that are considered to be critical to success of our convention only Lagos has successful met those criteria.

“The criteria like comprehensive security measuresÿ like full coverage by the media and the  capacity to accommodate 10, 000 delegates. There is no other city that can do that outside Abuja and Lagos. Benin that was also a very high ranking choice also did not succeed on that point because the accommodation in Benin would not meet up with the need of our delegatesÿ aspirants and other leaders that will be present. So those were the grounds on which Lagos qualified to be the choice of the venue for our convention0

Fayemi said the committee would prove critics wrong with a free and fair presidential primary.