Oba of Lagos under fire •For endorsing Ambode as next Lagos gov

Posted by admin Headlines, Lagos, State News Saturday, May 17th, 2014

A political group under the aegis of Visioners for New Lagos (VNL) said on Friday that the purported endorsement of Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode as the next governor of Lagos State by the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, was a ruse, adding that the monarch lacks the power to impose a candidate on the state.

The group, in a statement endorsed by its leader, Mr. Bambo Akin-Johnson, said that the assertion by Oba Akiolu was a grand illusion as, according to the VNL, the monarch was arrogating to himself the powers that he doesn’t have.

The group said it had earlier raised the alarm on the same issue recently, adding that the disposition of the “phantom Lagos elders” showed that the Oba of Lagos had veered off his brief “by arrogating to himself the right and power to determine who governs Lagos State.”

The group said that it would continue to insist that Lagos State is not the property of anyone or group, adding that it’s a collective heritage it’s ready to protect.

Also reacting was another aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Leke Pitan, who said such pronouncement negates the processes mapped out by his party to pick its governorship candidate.

Pitan, who is a former commissioner in the ministries of health and education, said this on Friday in a telephone chat with the Saturday Tribune.

According to him, the APC is a family while the monarch’s pronouncement had succeeded largely in “galvanising more Lagosians and party faithful to work in our support because people know the procedure by which the party should pick its candidate who will be presented to the electorate for general election.’’

-Tribunewp_posts