Gov ticket: Ambode in closed-door meeting with Buhari

Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State on Thursday had a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The meeting was said to be part of the last minute moves to settle the rift between Ambode and his godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu and his loyalists in Lagos State are reportedly opposed to Ambode’s second term and are backing another governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

The rift between Tinubu and Ambode had reportedly defied external interventions.

In what was believed to be part of his continued efforts to secure a second term in office, Ambode appeared at the Presidential Villa on Thursday.

He walked into the Presidential Villa at about 2.45pm and went into a private meeting with Buhari.

It was gathered that the meeting followed the appeal by the APC governors for the President’s intervention to save Ambode.

It was learnt that the President might also meet with APC stakeholders in Lagos in the next few days.

‘APC at peace in Lagos’

Meanwhile, the National Chairman of the APC, Mr Adams Oshiohmole, says the party is at peace in Lagos.

Oshiomhole stated this after his meeting with APC governors in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said, “The best way to measure democracy is the presence of more than one person showing interest in an office.

“At every level, I have seen people claiming that in one or two offices there is no opposition. In other offices, we have more than one candidate expressing interest. I think our party in Lagos is at peace.”

The Socialist Party of Nigeria on Thursday prayed that the disagreement between Ambode and Tinubu would worsen so that SPN can take over Lagos.

The group argued that neither Ambode nor Tinubu deserved the sympathy of the public, adding that the disagreement between them should be used as an opportunity to free Lagos from “self-succession in power and installation of cronies as governors.”

The opposition party urged the public not to support Tinubu’s alleged quest to replace Ambode with “another stooge” but to seize the opportunity to disrupt “the typical bourgeois politics wherein a tiny organised mafia is dictating the affairs and looting of collective resources.”

In a statement on Thursday jointly signed by its Chairman, Rufus Olusesan, and Publicity Secretary, Shoyombo M.K., the SPN urged the people to reject Sanwo-Olu.

“The Socialist Party of Nigeria states clearly that neither Sanwo-Olu nor Ambode represents a future that will make Lagos work for the mass of its poor working people, given the fact that they both represent the wishes and aspiration of big business and the moneybags.

“The struggle between the Mandate Movement loyal to Tinubu and Ambode is about business and profit interests of the contending forces of the ruling elite in Lagos,” the party said.

The SPN urged Lagosians to vote for its candidate as Lagos State governor to liberate the residents.































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