Facts have emerged about what transpired between President Muhammadu Buhari and embattled Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode during the closed door meeting held on Thursday in Abuja.
Sources close to the meeting told this newspaper that President Buhari told the Governor to go back to Lagos and settle his differences with those who worked for his emergence as Governor of the State, insisting that all politics is local. Those who voted for him are the people he should reconcile with.
Sources said Mr. President said that it will be difficult for him to impose a candidate on the people of any State and particularly Lagos, where the APC has one of the strongest pillars of the party as its leader. It was gathered that Buhari advised Ambode to find a way around his current travails since the All Progressives Congress is one family.
According to our source, the President said ‘’I can’t force Asiwaju to endorse you or any other aspirant, that will be very unfair and undemocratic. And we can’t even disenfranchise thousands of our party supporters by not giving them freedom to choose who they think should govern them, that in itself will have multiple negative effects.
Ambode, who has relocated to Abuja since his failed bid to get the nod of the State leadership has remained in Abuja trying to convince other State governors to help him out of his present condition. Although few of his colleagues are sympathetic towards him but the vast majority of them are not.
According to our reliable source who was privy to the meeting, Governor Ambode left with a straight face, refusing to acknowledge the press men who had positioned themselves, waiting to get the gist of what happened behind closed doors.
He further stated that the meeting was inconclusive.
Meanwhile all aspirants have converged on the National Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress in Abuja this morning ahead of the governorship screening exercise. It is not yet clear whether Governor Ambode will go for the screening but his two challengers Dr. Femi Hamzat and Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu have shown up at the venue of the exercise.
The Lagos chapter of the party has ruled in favour of direct primary, scheduled for Saturday 29th September, 2018.
