2015: Tinubu has no plans to impose any candidate, says Lagos APC

Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has described insinuations making the rounds that the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu plans to impose a governorship candidate on the party ahead of the  2015 governorship election in the state as false, unfounded, baseless and mere rumours.

APC in a statement yesterday by its Interim Publicity Secretary, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said it was a well known pattern in political de-marketing, which the opponents of the party use to confuse and deceive Lagos residents.
The party explained that at present, it merely zoned the choice of its governorship candidates to the Lagos East senatorial zone in line with the tenets of justice, equity and fair-play.

According to Igbokwe, “The unholy rumour about the imposition of a candidate when we are still far from the process of gubernatorial primaries fits into the sorry political calculation of the perennial losers, who will cling to any straw to whittle down the overwhelming support APC enjoys in Lagos.

We note that the rumour of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu imposing one candidate or the other is not new and had formed the outlandish and specious response of the weakened and dying opposition in Lagos to the unprecendented support Lagosians give to the APC.

We note that it was once rumoured that Asiwaju Tinubu had concluded plans to impose another Muslim candidate in Lagos. We note that at a stage, it was the rumour that the Asiwaju had concluded plans to impose his wife as the next Lagos State governor. Now, it is the rumour that Asiwaju Tinubu has concluded plans to impose a certain aspirant who is neither Muslim nor his wife just because the party decided to zone the next governorship to Lagos East when other zones had taken their turns in governing Lagos.

“Lagos APC notes that there is a rich list of competent, well qualified and worthy aspirants from Lagos East senatorial constituency, who have indicated interest in contesting for the governorship of Lagos. We note that these rich assembly of devoted party men have worked for the interest and progress of the party in Lagos and at the national level and the party owes them a free and transparent process through which one of them will emerge as the party’s flag bearer in Lagos. 

''We therefore, counsel our members to remain steadfast and continue to chart the progress of the party. We enjoin the aspirants to continue their mobilisation towards a free primary and be assured that they will have a level playing field.”