Lagos Governorship: Ikuforiji, Ambode, Hamzat, Others Pick APC Nomination Forms

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News From The State, Politics Sunday, October 19th, 2014

…As Gov. Fashola Kicks Against Consensus Candidate

The battle for who represents the All Progressive Congress (APC) in next year’s governorship election in Lagos State is getting hotter as major contenders for Governor Babatunde Fashola’s position have obtained the party’s governorship nomination forms.

The aspirants who have so far obtained the governorship nomination forms are Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji; Lagos Commissioner for Works, Dr. Kadri Hamzat; Senator Ganiu Olanrewaju Solomon (GOS), Mr. Tayo Ayinde, former Chief Details to the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu; Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, former Accountant General of Lagos State and the former Commissioner for Education and Health, Lagos State, Dr. Leke Pitan, while the former Attorney General of Lagos, Supo Sasore is expected to pick nomination form this week.

The aspirants took turns to visit the APC Lagos Secretariat on Acme Road, Ogba, Lagos to pick their nomination forms after paying N5 million each for the form as they await the party’s primaries on November, 2014 to decide which aspirant fly the banner of the APC in next year’s governorship poll in Lagos.

Fillers from the party still favour Ambode, who is said to be Tinubu’s ‘anointed candidate.’ Unconfirmed report had it that the party has had a meeting in which Ambode was chosen as the consensus candidate.

Recently, one of the aspirants, GOS was said to have walked out on Tinubu who invited him to his Bourdillon apartment to persuade him to step down for Ambode. GOS was angered and banged to door on Tinubu, vowing that he would contest the primaries at all cost.

Other aspirants are ready to slug it out with Ambode and defeat Tinubu’s plan to foist a candidate on them, but the former governor is bent on having his was as he did with Fashola.

When Ambode picked his nomination form, the picture he took with the APC Chairman, Lagos, Chief Henry Ajomale was everywhere in major newspapers in the country, but that of other aspirants was done quietly, signifying where the pendulum swings.

Speaking on Sunday, Fashola kicked against the emergence of gubernatorial candidate of the party in the state through consensus, saying that since people who were credible have indicated interest in the race, what is best is for the choice candidate of the party to emerge on November 15 during primary at the party’s secretariat.

The position of Governor Fashola confirmed the feelers that he and Tinubu are supporting different candidates for the APC governorship ticket.

Picking his nomination form at the weekend, Ikuforiji said among all those aspiring to govern the state in 2015, he remained the best, saying that by virtue of being the Speaker of the House and for a length of time, he qualified as a good debater and one who understood the true meaning of governance.

Two forms, the expression of interest form and the governorship nomination form, were personally handed over to Ikuforiji by the Lagos state chairman of APC, Ajomale, after Ikuforiji paid N5.5m for both forms.

The Speaker expressed confidence that he was the man to beat arguing that even members of the party who hold the aces in the state understood this, adding that “go round the membership of the party, they know the best amongst the aspirants in the APC.

“This is my 12th year in the government of Lagos State and I have been leading an arm of government in this state that is recognised worldwide to be the very best that Nigeria has had and that same best we are taking to the Governor’s Office so that Lagosians will have what will be globally accepted to be the very best form of government in the continent,” he told journalists at the party secretariat,” he said.

Ikuforiji, who did not rule out the possibility of a consensus candidate, stated that “as the Speaker of the House, we always come out top of any debate and the main business of the House is debating issues and if you are the one presiding over that, you should be a good debater.

“You talked of consensus candidate; it is all part of the game, there can be consensus candidate and we will not be the first. Even President Goodluck Jonathan is the consensus candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). So, there is nothing wrong in having a consensus candidate,” he stated.