This is because the Mandate Group, which is said to control more than 50 percent membership of the party in Lagos, are rooting for one of their leaders, Muiz Banire, to succeed the incumbent governor, Babatunde Fashola, whose eight-year tenure expires in May 2015.
Another group that can boast of same is the Justice Forum.
A reliable source in the Mandate Group who spoke under condition of anonymity told Sunday Independentthat members of the group are not happy with the present arrangement in the party amidst speculations that the party may not be too disposed to allow an open playing field.
They have therefore, according to him, vowed to vehemently resist any attempt by the leadership of the party to foist any unpopular candidate on them.
The other names being mentioned include that of Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, the state Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure; Akin Ambode, the former state Accountant-General; Speaker of the state Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji; Senators Ganiyu Solomon and Olugbenga Ashafa; and Babatunde Fowler, Chairman of the state Internal Revenue Board.
It was gathered that though many of these names are being pushed around as likely candidates to succeed Fashola, most of the Mandate members are disposed to Banire.
Aside his immense contributions to the party from the days of Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and now the APC where he occupies the position of Interim National Legal Adviser, he is also said to be ahead by virtue of his position as one of the arrow heads of the Mandate Group, a formidable political group created by Asiwaju Tinubu and the Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
“It is this same group, the Mandate Group, that spearheaded the emergence and election of Fashola. Asiwaju came to us and told us Fashola is his candidate and begged us to support him. As our leader we obeyed and gave our unflinching support to Fashola,” he said.
According to another credible source in the party, rather than show appreciation for the group on whose wings he rode to power, Fashola treated the members of the Mandate Group with disdain and rather chose to fraternise with other groups who knew nothing about the process that led to his emergence as governor.
“The simple truth is, members of the Mandate Group are not happy with the current arrangement. They are particularly not happy with Governor Fashola because he did not treat them well from the very first day he became governor.”
“Now, as we begin the search for the next governor of Lagos, the Mandate Group wants somebody who understands them well to be the governor. They want a thoroughbred politician and not a technocrat to succeed the incumbent governor. This is because it is only a politician that understands how the game is played very well.”
While bemoaning the culture of imposition that became the hallmark of the defunct ACN, the group sounded a note of warning to the leadership of the party in the state, saying they will not accept any form of imposition, especially as regards the governorship race.
“We hold Asiwaju in the highest esteem. We have always listened to him whenever he asks us to take any particular direction but let me assure you that 2015 will be a different ball game. I make bold to say that members of the Mandate Group will not likely listen to him given the current state of event in the Lagos APC,” he said.
Meanwhile, members of Ekiti Chapter of the APC on Saturday validated Governor Kayode Fayemi as the party’s candidate for the June 21 election.
Fayemi polled a total of 192,767 votes to emerge the APC candidate at the state governorship primaries held across 177 wards by registered APC members and duly collated in all the 16 local government areas were announced at the Trade Fair Centre in Ado Ekiti.
The primaries was supervised by national officers of the party, led by its organising secretary and chairman of the six-member panel, Senator Osita Izunaso.
Other members of the panel include: The National Youth Leader and Secretary of the panel, Alhaji Abubakar Suleja, Isah Maduto, Bala Jubril, Alhaji Yemi Sanusi, and Steve Asimoke.
Representatives of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were also at the primaries, while the men of the police and the State Security Service were also at hand to provide adequate security.
Presenting the certificate of return to Fayemi, Izunaso said the APC is not just a political party but a movement that would cleanse the country of corruption and liberate the people from the
pangs of misrule in the hands of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
He said, “Because our party is a law abiding party, we have started the process for the Primaries since Friday and we conducted the congress in the all the wards and collated the results at the Local government headquarters as stipulated in our constitution.”
Izunaso disclosed that only Governor Fayemi procured the form at the APC headquarters in Abuja, saying they only conducted the primaries because of the enormous respect the party has for the Constitution and internal democracy.
He urged the people of the State to cast their votes for Fayemi, whom he described as a performer and reliable leader.
Fayemi, in his acceptance speech, branded APC as a democratic party founded on the platform of internal democracy, saying what the party has done remains a worthy model and part of the ways to consolidate the democratic culture in the country.
He said his emergence as the flagbearer has shown the overwhelming supports he enjoy in APC and among Ekiti populace. The governor praised the party for their doggedness and supports in the last few years, assuring that the party would next election would
be won in a landslide victory.
“If what we got today is what we get on the day of election, then the victory is sealed and delivered. But we have to do more than that. We have to go out and propagate the APC to Nigerians as the best party for our people.
“Some have asked that why did we embark on this process when we only have an aspirant. But we have been able to prove to them that APC is a party that believes in internal democracy, transparency and constitutionality,” Fayemi said.
In a related development, Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday emerged as the candidate of the APC to contest the August 9th 2014 governorship election in the state.
Aregbesola, by this emergence, will slog it out with Senator Iyiola Omisore of the PDP who has vowed to unseat the former in the contest.
Candidates are yet to emerge from other registered political parties seeking to contest the seat currently occupied by Aregbesola. Labour Party is yet to pick its candidate, likewise other political parties in the state.
At the party’s primary held yesterday at Freedom Park, Osogbo, Aregbesola polled the highest votes.
Aregbesola, according to the party’s primary held in all the 332 wards across the state, polled a total vote of 269,631 out of 355,729 total votes of delegates.
The election which supervised by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai-led committee was collated at about 6.00pm after the votes had been collated at each of the 30 Local Government Areas.
El-Rufai, who said the election was transparent and devoid of violence, said the party did not deter any of its members from contesting the governorship election as no other person contested with Aregbesola.
He said the party believes in democracy and would adopt all the programmes and policies of Governor Aregbesola if it takes over the government at the centre.
In his acceptance speech, Aregbesola declared that the party would win the August 9 governorship election in the state, adding that “we do not need any change in the state; rather, we need a change at the centre.”
He stressed that he would use all means to battle the PDP, saying that violence alone could not help the PDP win the election.
Source: Daily Independent
No comments:
Post a Comment