Hamzat Outlaws Violence for 2027 Lagos Race; Tells Ecstatic APC Members to Drop Thuggery and Fight with Ideas After Massive Primary Coronation

Freshly minted Lagos APC gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, has drawn a definitive line in the sand regarding the party’s operational strategy for the 2027 election cycle, declaring that the ruling party does not require an ounce of violence or intimidation to lock down a total victory at the polls.

Addressing thousands of party leaders, grassroots mobilizers, and market executives who flooded the APC Secretariat in Ikeja on Thursday, May 21, 2026, the Deputy Governor insisted that structural execution and superior governance records will always defeat physical chaos. The peace charge serves as Hamzat’s first major policy directive to the party structure since his historic, landslide primary sweep, where he secured an astronomical 657,917 votes to flatten the ballot.

The incoming flagbearer argued that the APC’s unmatched numeric footprint across Nigeria’s economic hub makes any resort to underhanded tactics or electoral thuggery completely redundant. He reminded the cheering crowd that with over 650,000 fully accredited and registered members organized down to the polling-unit level, the party already possesses an organic security shield capable of delivering an undisputed victory through the ballot box alone.

“Elections are a competition of blueprints, not a clash of cutlasses,” Hamzat declared, adjusting his signature political cap. “We have the numbers, we have the visible infrastructure projects across Alausa, and we have the trust of Lagosians. Anyone moving a manual of violence on the field is an enemy of this party and an economic saboteur to our state’s progress.”

Instead of preparing for territorial trenches, Hamzat directed ward chairmen and local government coordinators to immediately activate a technical rescue of the state’s grassroots messaging. He tasked them with taking the administration’s scorecard ranging from the expanding blue and red rail lines to comprehensive maternal healthcare programs directly into local communities to counter opposition campaigns.

The deputy governor’s aggressive anti-violence stance has been warmly received by political analysts, who view it as a calculated move to clean up the party’s image following the highly fractious off-cycle polls of previous years. Backed by ironclad elite alignment from President Bola Tinubu and the powerful Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), Hamzat’s words carry absolute institutional authority. By commanding his followers to drop weapons and pick up mobilization files, the APC commander has permanently closed the portal on electoral thuggery, betting everything on the pure weight of internal organization to retain the crown in 2027.