2015: Fashola, Some Lagos Governorship Aspirants Set To Dump APC

The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC in Lagos State may witness a total implosion as the incumbent Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola and some dissatisfied gubernatorial aspirants of the party in Lagos State may massively defect from the party to a yet to be named party following yesterday’s orchestrated governorship primary election that polled Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode as the winner of the party.
A competent source who pleaded not to be named told newspunch.org that the predicted outcome of the gubernatorial election in Lagos State, which saw the anointed aspirant of the national leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the election has torn the incumbent governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, some other prominent aspirants and Tinubu apart even before yesterday’s primaries

Don’t miss: Ambode’s orchestrated victory: 10 Lagos guber aspirants vexed walked away from APC Primary

Curiously, both Fashola and Tinubu were absent at the Onikan primaries as of the time of this report late Thursday though delegates were still hopeful that Tinubu would still appear at the venue.

Our correspondent saw the governor’s convoy drove past the venue and ascend the Third Mainland Bridge around 11am.

Sources told our correspondent that the governor was not happy with the conduct of the primaries.

One of the aspirants, who asked not to be named, said, “The way things are going, there may be mass defection from this party as even the governor might leave soon. Tinubu has emasculated all of us, including Fashola who is not even being given a say.

“We planned to shun the primaries in protest after the party refused to postpone it following our request but we all agreed to come so that we can observe it properly in case the matter is taken to court. In any case, the dubious manner in which the state congress was carried out is already at a Federal High Court so there is a high possibility that the result of this event will be nullified.

“Only Tinubu has the list of the delegates and most of us were not able to reach out to them. This is most unfortunate.”

Akinwunmi Ambode, who defeated 12 other aspirants, had remained in public discourse as the anointed candidate of Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos and a national leader and financier of the APC.

Though he has worked for the state for several years and in fact reputed to be the brains behind the awesome internal revenue being generated by the state today, Ambode obviously lacks requisite political experience to singly defeat some of his co-aspirants.

Those defeated by Ambode included the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly for the past eight years, Adeyemi Ikuforiji; and serving senator representing Lagos West in the National Assembly, Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon.

The other aspirants that lost to Ambode in the high politics of Thursday at the Onikan Stadium are: a former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Olasupo Sasore, said to be a favourite of the outgoing Governor Babatunde Fashola; a former Commissioner for Health, Leke Pitan; an incumbent Commissioner for Works, Obafemi Hamzat; a former aide to Tinubu, Mr. Tayo Ayinde; Mr. Adekunle Disu, Mr. Wahab Tokunbo, Mr. Olanrewaju Ope and a former Commissioner for Rural Affairs, Mr. Tola Kasali.

As many as 10 of the candidates vying for the opportunity left the venue angrily, and it is unclear if the large-scale disaffection that compelled them to take that action will precipitate further crisis within the APC in Lagos that might lead to the party losing the key state.