…Blames media for creating earthquake in Lagos

Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has dismissed the insinuations that the Governor Akiwunmi Ambode of Lagos State is embattled over his re-election bid due to his rift with the ruling party’s national leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu.

Fielding questions from newsmen after the meeting between him and the APC Governors, in Abuja, Oshiomhole argued that the entrance into the race by others does not indicate a pass of no confidence on the governor, but an indication of the democratic nature of the ruling party.

Urging the media to stop creating earthquake in Lagos state, Oshiomhole said, “The attempt to call him an embattled Governor is wrong. There is no APC governor that is embattled and because we are democratic, the best way to measure democracy is the presence of more than one person showing interest in an office. That does not make any other person embattled.

“But of course, the media can create this impression that there is an earthquake in Lagos, there is no earthquake.

“At every level I have seen people claiming that in one or two offices there was no opposition. In every other office we have more than one candidate expressing interest.

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“Those people who are currently occupying those positions are not by reasons of those new expressions of interests embattled.

“I think our party in Lagos is at peace, there are conversations going on at the ward level across the 8,500 wards or there about.

“Across the country, conversations are going on within the APC family. Conversations are going on in each of the 774 Local Governments across the country.

“Our party members are negotiating, they are persuading, they are doing compromises, and they are competing, because we are progressing.

“Across the 36 states our party activity is at its peak and that is how it is even at the centre.

“So, it will be unfair for anyone out of his own prejudice to label anyone as embattled or being pressured. Everyone has been active,” he said.

Oshiomhole also faulted the impression that Governor Ambode is attending the governors meeting for the first time, stressing that; “To say that you have never seen the Lagos State Governor in our meetings is to the extent that your lens is blurred.

“My records and minutes of our meetings will show the participation of Lagos State governor in all the meetings in which he has been invited.

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“But, like some other governors, some meetings have coincided with some other activities.

“There is no governor including my humble self when I was a governor I didn’t manage to achieve 100 per cent attendance.

“Even in parliament, there are minimum requirements so I don’t think it is fair to suggest that you have seen somebody here because of anything,” he said.