The ruling All Progressives Congress APC on Tuesday ended its sale of nomination and expression of interest forms, with no fewer than 25 aspirants jostling for its presidential ticket.

Although, the directorate of organization was still computing the figures of aspirants including those who picked forms in their states as of press time, Vanguard gathered that there are at least 105 governorship aspirants, nearly a thousand national assembly aspirants and more than 1,500 aspirants for states Houses of Assembly.

Submitting his forms on Tuesday at the International Conference Centre ICC Abuja, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu urged stakeholders to cede the APC presidential ticket to the Southwest.

On why the recent meeting of some Southwest APC leaders with some presidential aspirants from the zone did not result into a consensus arrangement, the governor said; “That is unfair for you to say we did not arrive at a consensus. You should have asked what was the objective? Did we achieve the objective of that meeting?

The answer is yes. We needed to have ourselves in the room, lock up ourselves and have frank conversations which was exactly what we did. Are we going to have further conversation with the leadership? Yes, I believe so. So we are not fed up, we were sincere with ourselves and we hope that in future engagements, all the aspirations we have in our region will come to pass”.

When asked about zoning, Sanwo-Olu said the Southwest deserves the presidential ticket.

I think we believe so and I think that is what is fair, that is what is just, but it is really about Nigeria. There are aspirations everywhere and there are so many qualified people but for equity and fairness we have in our country, I think it is just morally fair that it goes to that part and South-west is top-notch on that. We believe that our positions from those meetings are still very valid and everybody must consider”, he stated.