Former Lagos governor and national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has listed the ground rules for the 13 aspirants jostling for the governorship ticket of the party in Lagos State.
 Tinubu, at a meeting with the aspirants on Sunday night, which had major party stakeholders in attendance, demanded fair play from them even as he assured of a level playing ground in the contest of who succeeds the outgoing governor, Babatunde Fashola.
Governorship hopefuls, who attended the meeting included Akinwunmi Ambode, Senator Ganiyu Solomon, Supo Sashore, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, Dr. Femi Hamzat among others.
Stakeholders of the party, who graced the meeting hosted by Tinubu at his Bourdillion, Ikoyi Lagos residence included former acting national chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, state chairman of the party, Chief Henry Ajomale, among others.
It was gathered that Tinubu, who presided over the meeting, informed the aspirants that he was not personally involved with any of the candidates as it was being peddled in the media.
Hee re-emphasized that a level playing ground would be availed to all.
In the meeting, which was said to have stretched from 8.30 pm till about 10.00 pm, a source told Vanguard that “Asiwaju assured the aspirants that there will be primaries and that it would be open and transparent; he urged the aspirants to apply fair play in their campaigns.”
It was also gathered that the APC leader in return got a commitment from the aspirants to guarantee that whoever lost would not rock the boat and that they would all back whoever emerged as candidate of the party.
Another source said, “Our leaders advised us to take things easy. They promised to be fair to all of us. He (Tinubu) made it clear that there is no plan for consensus candidate.
“But they asked us to work ahead of primaries. In fact, they all insisted on primaries and no suggestion of consensus candidate came up. Tinubu implored that whoever loses should take it in the spirit of sportsmanship, with the assurance that all will be given a level playing field”.
Sequel to Sunday night’s meeting, Tinubu, on Monday, had another parley with just the aspirants in the course of which he was said to have reiterated the issues canvassed the previous night.
The string of meetings with aspirants is in the wake of what is being perceived as a major challenge to Tinubu’s political dominance of the state from within and outside the party.
A number of stakeholders have protested the alleged endorsement of some aspirants by major party officials to the detriment of others believed to be more suitable. .
Comments