LAGOS GUBER ASPIRANTS MEET, INSISTS ON PRIMARIES

Ahead of the governorship primaries of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Lagos State, no fewer than six aspirants met secretly at the weekend, with a plot to stall the exercise through a consensus candidate arrangement

. It was learnt that the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, a former governor of the state, had asked all governorship aspirants in the state to prepare for primary elections for as long as they are unwilling to step down.
But all indications point in the emergence of Akinwumi Ambode should a primary election hold, as he is believed enjoy the support of elders of the party.
On Friday night, however, some governorship aspirants reportedly met at a popular hotel in Maryland, Lagos, where they appraised events in the party, criticizing Tinubu for attempting to humiliate them through a primary election.
Competent sources at the meeting disclosed that governorship aspirants who met to decide on a consensus candidate include Dr. Leke Pitan, a former Commissioner for Health in the state; Mr. Femi Hamzat, Commissioner for Works; Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Speaker of the state’s House of Assembly, Senator Ganiyu Solomon and Mr. Tokunbo Wahab.
The only non-governorship aspirant at the meeting, Muiz Banire, it was learnt, moderated the meeting even though he is believed to be rooting strongly for Dr. Pitan.
Ambode, sources said, was not at the meeting because he was informed late, just few hours to the meeting when he was already engaged for another assignment elsewhere. Our sources believed that this was deliberate because the agenda for the meeting was against him and their informing him at all “was to fulfil all righteousness.”
It was further gathered that such a meeting is against the position of the party leadership which directed against clandestine moves to pick consensus candidate but wait to partake in the party’s primary election coming up early in December.
The parley, which started on a good note, saw many of the aspirants agreeing to jettison their governorship aspiration in the interest of the group’s efforts towards stopping Ambode at the primary election.
“The meeting started well and progressed smoothly. After some deliberations, some of the aspirants, including Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Tokunbo Wahab and Ganiyu Solomon, agreed to drop their governorship ambitions to pave the way for a consensus candidate.
“Consequently, more aspirants were persuaded to step down to allow for the emergence of two aspirants among which others will elect a consensus candidate. At the end of the process, the duo of Leke Pitan and Femi Hamzat were left in the race for consensus,” the source said.
However, things took a turn for the worse at that point as Hamzat, perhaps sensing that the imminent voting will go against him, raised some objections to the planned election of a consensus candidate and annoyingly left just about 40 minutes into the meeting, it was gathered.
“Hamzat, sensing that the decision to be taken may not favour him, objected to certain parts of the process and at that point, things started to fall apart at the parley. All efforts to allay his fears fell on deaf ears,” the source added.
Hamzat’s departure, sources said, ended the meeting on a sour note.
“His departure put paid to the group’s effort to elect one of them to square up against Ambode at the primary election.
“Consequently, there is serious panic in their camps ahead of the election as they were banking on the success of their plot to stop Ambode from picking the ticket,” the source explained