Ambode visits Buhari over ‘plot to stop him in 2019’

Akinwumi Ambode, governor of Lagos state, is currently meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Dressed in a blue agbada with a matching cap, the governor walked into the presidential villa around 2:45pm.

A presidential source said the meeting is about the opposition to the reelection bid of the governor by some influential members in the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mandate Movement, a group fiercely loyal to Bola Tinubu, estranged godfather of the governor, has endorsed Jide Sanwo-Olu, a former commissioner in the state, as Ambode’s successor.

Sanwo-Olu and Obafemi Hamzat, also a former commissioner in the state, are battling to beat Ambode to the APC ticket for the 2019 election.

But governors elected on the platform of the party are rallying round Ambode in order to make him secure the party’s ticket.

There are reports that the party’s governorship primary was rescheduled from September 25 to September 29 in order to give more time for resolving the crisis in Lagos APC.

TheCable could not independently verify this.

When APC governors met in Abuja on Wednesday night, they resolved to seek the intervention of Buhari, according to NAN.

The agency reported that Rochas Okorocha, chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, delivered the governors’ message to the president few minutes before his meeting with Ambode.

NAN quoted a source as saying the president might end the tussle between Ambode and those opposed to his reelection.

The president is reportedly planning to meet with other APC stakeholders in the state within the week as part of efforts toward resolving the rift.