No rift between Tinubu, Ambode – Official

As the 2019 general elections approach, there have been strong speculations that the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Ahmed Tinubu might deny Lagos State governor Akinwunmi Ambode a second term re-election.

These speculations which suggested Ambode is on the verge of joining the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have generated debates on the streets and different media platforms in recent weeks.

But, a top official of the Lagos State Government who spoke with The Guardian on Tuesday said the rumoured rift  is the “work of political jobbers.”

The government official, who pleaded anonymity questioned, facts about the claims, saying it was impossible for “the best governor in Nigeria to join the PDP when their chairman just joined APC.”

“There is no rift. There can’t be a rift because it is not possible for the governor to join PDP, for what ? It is just imaginations of political jobbers who are trying to feed the public on lies. That is what they do,” the official said.

“How can the best governor in the country join another party. It is not feasible, it is not considerable and it cannot happen. I’m telling you emphatically that there is no rift between governor Ambode and National leader of APC Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,”

On recent declaration from the APC National Executives Council (NEC) to adopt direct primaries for all candidates, the government source said the declaration is not a threat to governor Ambode’s re-election.

“As I speak there is no contender for APC primary governorship election with Ambode. Nobody is coming out, even in PDP nobody is coming out, the governor is the only person that is contesting. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think anybody from the party is coming to challenge him, that will be difficult.”

“People have their own right to guess and to speculate and this is the season of political jobbers and speculators. It is the normal thing for people to speculate and think of what is going on.”

“Asiwaju has not spoken of any rift and I don’t know why people are conjuring nuance of any kind. It happened like this four years ago too,” top Lagos government official said.