The battle on who gets the governorship
ticket of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State continued on
Wednesday with the party leadership mounting pressure on the incumbent
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, to drop his second term bid and endorse his
opponent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Sanwo-Olu came into reckoning in Lagos
politics after he obtained the state governorship form last Tuesday and
immediately got the backing of the Mandate Movement in the Lagos APC.
The Mandate Movement is led by the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who was Ambode’s political godfather.
The chairmen of the 57 councils had also declared support for Sanwo-Olu.
The governor and Tinubu have been in the
news in the past few days because of an alleged rift over the second
term bid of Ambode.
Sanwo-Olu, a former commissioner in the
state, on Sunday formally declared his intention to vie for the Lagos
State governorship ticket of the APC, promising to restore the glory of
the state when he was voted in as the governor.
Notable APC leaders in the state, who were either allies of Tinubu or his followers, were at the declaration.
On Monday, Ambode’s wife, Bolanle had
tried to save her husband’s job when she met with Tinubu in Osun State
and tried to pacify him to change his mind. The meeting did not yield
positive result.
Our correspondent learnt that both the
state and national leaders of the party met on Wednesday and mounted
pressure on the Lagos governor to accept the decision of the state party
leaders.
It was gathered that Ambode, however,
told them that he would prefer to go ahead with the direct primary
option of the party in the state.
A source said, “Ambode was told to step
down and forget his second term ambition. He was told to publicly
endorse Sanwo-Olu as his successor. He was promised a ministerial
appointment after the APC might have won the presidential election. He
was even told to pick a ministry of his choice.
“But Ambode seemed not to be pleased
with the directives of the leaders as he declined the ministerial
dangle. He also told them to allow the APC primary process to continue
as planned. For now, the meeting is still continuing and there is no
compromise in sight.”
Our correspondent also learnt on
Wednesday that Ambode had instructed his camp not to speak to any
journalist and wait for the electoral process to pan out.
“We told him that he might likely lose if he decided not to fight back, but he just smiled,” another source said.
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