Lagos APC Tells Candidates: Don’t Travel Abroad Until After Election, as Party inaugurates 1,235-member PBAT-KOH Campaign Council, targets 5m votes in Lagos
The Lagos State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has inaugurated its 1,235-member PBAT-KOH Campaign Council for the 2027 general elections, directing all its candidates not to travel out of the country until after the elections.
The State Chairman of the party, Pastor Cornelius Ojelabi, gave the directive on Friday at the inauguration of the campaign council at the party’s secretariat in ACME, Lagos. He also urged all candidates to cooperate fully with the campaign council and focus on issue-based campaigns in line with the Electoral Act.
Ojelabi described the inauguration as a milestone in deepening democracy in Lagos State and Nigeria, charging members of the council to work together to deliver the expected results for the party at the polls.
According to him, members of the council have what it takes to make the party proud, as all the candidates are eminently qualified to represent the APC. He urged them to approach the assignment with utmost discipline, clarity of purpose and accountability.
The APC chairman also cautioned members against complacency, saying there were no pushovers among the political parties, as every party was determined to win the election and make a statement.
Ojelabi said that with 118 days to the presidential election, the task before the campaign council was enormous, urging members to move into communities and work towards securing at least five million of the seven million votes in Lagos for the party.
He said the strategy was to localise the campaign, declaring “Operation Man Your Polling Boots” across the 13,325 polling units in the state.
On his part, the governorship candidate of the party, Dr. Kadri Hamzat, urged members not to be afraid to campaign for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu, citing the President’s role in conceiving the Lekki Free Trade Zone and his administration’s efforts to reposition the nation’s economy.
Hamzat also said the President was working to address insecurity through the prosecution of Boko Haram elements and other criminals in parts of the country.
He urged party members to support the President with a target of at least four million votes out of the seven million registered voters in Lagos, adding that ongoing renovation at the airport and strategic interventions in agriculture had created more jobs for citizens.
In his remarks, the Director-General of the PBAT-KOH Campaign Council, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, said the inauguration marked the beginning of a serious assignment and a defining period for the party.
Obanikoro said no one should underestimate the task ahead of the 2027 election or regard any role in the campaign council as ceremonial. He urged members to put the past behind them and work as a team to achieve the mandate given to them.
He said the coming elections would shape the future of the country, stressing the need for every member to give their best and for each directorate to deploy its strengths towards achieving one common purpose.
The former Deputy Governor, Prince Abiodun Ogunleye, who spoke on behalf of the Chairman of the Governance Advisory Council, Prince Tajudeen Olusi, described the governorship candidate as competent and knowledgeable enough to govern the state.
He prayed that the efforts of the party would culminate in victory at the election.
