I’m ready for direct primaries – Ambode declares

[FILE PHOTO] National Leader of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu (left); APC Lagos Chairman, Tunde Balogun and Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, during the stakeholders’ meeting at the party’s secretariat in Lagos

Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday expressed readiness to participate in All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election slated for Saturday 29 September.

Ambode, who will contest the party’s ticket to earn himself a second term with two former commissioners, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat, has allegedly fallen out of favour with his political benefactor and national leader of the party Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Some of Ambode’s alleged undoings include sidelining the top brass of the party in policy making and decisions in the state since his election to office in 2015.

Sanwo-Olu, on the other side, is reportedly being backed by local council chairmen, Tinubu’s Mandate Group of the APC and other factions of the party.

Speculations have it that, Ambode was asked to step down to avoid the humiliation of a seating governor losing his party’s ticket. A move which the Governor has shunned to declared his readiness to contest his return ticket for next year’s election.

“As our great party approaches Saturday, September 29th, 2018, earmarked for the direct primary election to choose the candidate to fly our party’s gubernatorial flag at the next general election,” Ambode said in a statement signed by Lagos Information & Strategy Kehinde Bamigbetan.

“I am happy to restate my commitment to participate in that process having procured and submitted my nomination form and having formally declared my intention to seek a second term to continue on the path of unprecedented growth and development that our State has witnessed since 2015.”

The Governor said he is reiterating his readiness in line with the choice of the party in Lagos State and the validation given to the direct primary preference by the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC).

Ambode assured members of the party that his re-election will ensure continuity of the “growth and development it has witnessed over time and ensure that the opposition does not take root in the State.”

The Governor, while commending other aspirants for their courage and commitment to the party urged party faithfuls “to come out en masse and vote peacefully in all the 20 Local Governments and 245 wards where the election will take place.”