Facts emerged on Wednesday on how Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State is said to have incurred the wrath of some party elders and stakeholders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Daily Independent has gathered.

There have been speculations that the governor’s second term ambition is under threat owing to alleged crack in his relationship with Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, his political benefactor.

It is also alleged that while the stakeholders believe that the governor is working, they claimed he has refused to give money to elders of the party, has failed to award contracts to party members, and that he has stopped some of the privileges party members get such as Hajj tickets, Sallah rams, Christmas gifts, and that he has embarked on building his own political structure, and so on.

Some even alleged that the demand by Tinubu during the last stakeholders meeting of the party on August 14 that the Lagos State chapter will go for direct primaries is targeted at the governor.

According to Daily Independent, a founding member of the party said majority of the party’s stakeholders were unhappy with Ambode because they felt they contributed financially to his election in 2015 but that he had not repaid them in kind.

While denying that the governor had any rift with Tinubu, he said the party leaders first expressed their indignation at the governor’s alleged tightfistedness during a stakeholders’ meeting last year at the party secretariat where they accused him of not giving out money to those who contributed to his electoral success.

Speaking further, he said: “Many of the stakeholders perceived Ambode’s predecessor, Fashola, as a stingy fellow who concentrated his efforts on projects without taking care of party elders.

“They thought Ambode will be totally different but their expectations have been cut short.

“There was a meeting that was held last year at the party’s secretariat on Acme. The governor was in attendance as well as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. During the meeting, a couple of people who spoke actually expressed their feelings on the fact that the governor was not doling out money, especially to party leaders who contributed to his campaign in 2015.

“During that meeting, they gave the impression that ‘okay, we will wait for you in 2019 when we get to the election time’.
He said the governor took the decision owing to the lean resources, especially when the country went into recession in 2015.

“On the issue of Sallah gifts. Yes, he did actually. But it wasn’t that he stopped it totally. They still gave some people, but it is not general again as it used to be.

“Here in our place, we used to get like 400 rams but during the last Ileya festival, we got only 40. So, you expect those that used to get but didn’t get this around to be aggressive.”

Also speaking on the claim that the governor is trying to create his own political structures through the funding of political groups, our source said the governor could not stop people who believed in his good works from forming associations to canvass for his re-election.

“In election season, people will form different political groups for their own personal interests because they know through that means they can get some financial rewards from the governor.

“There is no way the governor can stop them since the constitution allows freedom of association. But that is not to imply that it is Ambode that is funding them to dislodge the political structures that brought him to power,” he said.

When Daily Independent contacted Alhaji Tunde Balogun, the Lagos State Chairman of APC, he denied knowledge of any rift between Ambode and Tinubu.

“I don’t know of any rift between them and I don’t think any exists, in the first place. The governor is working and Lagos APC is one united happy family,” he said.

•Excerpted from a Daily Independent report

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