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.’’
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Politics