17th November, 2014
Eromosele Ebhomele
Members of the Lagos State House of Assembly have denied endorsing an aspirant for the 2015 governorship election in Lagos on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Akinwunmi Ambode is currently slugging it out with other aspirants including the Lagos State Commissioner for Works, Obafemi Hamzat, Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, former Commissioner for Education in the state, Leke Pitan, Senator Ganiyu Solomon and others.
There had been recent reports that at least 34 lawmakers of the House endorsed Ambode after holding a close-door meeting with him.
The report said Ambode, a former Accountant-General of the State, had invited the lawmakers to a dinner and there he told them about his ambition, unveiled his programmes and his respect for the legislative arm of government in the State.
Deputy Speaker of the House, Kolawole Taiwo, who later spoke for his colleagues at the meeting had said that the lawmakers pledged to support whoever their party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, threw up as the candidate for the governorship election in 2015.
“We have listened to him with rapt attention. We are a party people with a lot of battles won. We assure him of total support for whoever the party presents,” he had said.
However, according to some of the lawmakers who spoke with P.M.NEWS Monday morning, the statement by the Deputy Speaker was misconstrued to mean that the lawmakers had endorsed Ambode.
“We have not endorsed anyone for the governorship election under our party in the state. We know and understand what party supremacy means and we can’t just try to put ourselves before the party.
“What we said that day was that we would wholeheartedly support whoever emerges as the party’s candidate. I do not understand how the story changed after the meeting,” one of the principal officers of the House said in a phone conversation.
The lawmaker, who said he was not qualified to speak on the issue, told P.M.NEWS that the lawmakers would stand by the statement of the Deputy Speaker that only the chosen candidate by the party would be supported.
Some of the lawmakers also confirmed that they did not endorse Ambode, but that they only told him to continue with his ambition and pray that he is the one picked by the party.
“We told him we don’t have any issue with him. We also told him that his programmes, like those of other aspirants, are good and that we would work with any of the aspirants picked by the party. That is all I know about the meeting,” another lawmaker told our correspondent while advising journalists against misinforming the public.