Oba Akiolu with his chosen candidate Akinwunmi Ambode

THE Special Adviser (Media)/Chief of Staff to former Governor Bola Tinubu, Mr. Sunday Dare, has dismissed as unfounded, baseless and malicious the insinuations that Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, was acting the script of his boss when he declared that the former Accountant-General of Lagos, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, is the preferred successor to Governor Babatunde Fashola in 2015 reports the Guardian.

At a public presentation of the biography of Ambode last week, Akiolu announced that the former accountant-general is the preferred successor to Fashola.

Akinwunmi Ambode

Speaking on phone with The Guardian yesterday, Dare said his boss has not conceded his right to speak to anybody. 

In a similar vein, the Publicity Secretary, Lagos State chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said the monarch simply said his mind and not necessarily the position of the party. 

Also, one of the governorship aspirants on the platform of the party, Dr. Leke Pitan, who served in various capacities as Commissioner for Health and Education under Tinubu’s government, said he nursed no ill-feeling against anybody’s personal opinion, especially as it is not part of the process of primaries that are well spelt out in the party’s constitution. 

Dare said: “Tinubu was not in the country when the traditional ruler made the statement. A lot of questions have been asked since the monarch made the statement but my boss would respond if the need be.”

Dare, however, said that the traditional ruler in his capacity as a Nigerian and in exercising his fundamental human rights and freedom of expression “is free to express his feelings about whom he deemed fit to succeed the outgoing governor.”

He said that the governorship race is still open and several aspirants within the party have indicated their interest in contesting, but their fate would be decided through the party’s primary.

He added that it is the electorate that would ultimately decide who would become the governor of Lagos in 2015 through their votes among whom Oba Akiolu only has one vote to cast. 

“It is not right to condemn the monarch for expressing his opinion considering the fact that Lagos State is very strategic, therefore everybody, including the monarch, is interested in whatever is happening here”, he said. 

The party’s spokesman however posited that Akiolu couldn’t be ignored in Lagos, saying “instead of criticising him, I think it is better to wait and see whether any of the traditional rulers whom he claimed he consulted, including some of the elders he mentioned, would go contrary to his opinion.”

According to Pitan, “if any intimidation was intended, it has not achieved its purpose. We are even more resolute in our goal and it has galvanised many more citizens of Lagos State to stand and support us.” 

But a reliable source in the party urged the Christian community to be careful not to allow the candidature of Ambode look as if “you demanded for a Christian governor and here is a candidate for you.”