AMBODE'S UNFINISHED RETIREMENT MATTER

The news in the Nigerian Pulse of February 10 should bother all the citizens of Lagos State as they choose their Governor in the April 11 Governorship elections in the state. The news is that Akinwunmi Ambode, APC Governorship candidate in the state did not retire voluntarily at the age of 49 as claimed by his media aides but was forced to because he stole 20bn naira as Accountant General of the state. Indeed he was to be sacked by the State Governor Raji Fashola before the state’s godfather Bola Tinubu intervened and the sack was converted to retirement. This is what Ambode is using falsely to flaunt his “honesty” and “integrity” in the ongoing governorship campaign in the state.

The Nigerian Pulse revealed that for some strange reason the state former governor went on to use that incident to earmark Ambode as Fashola's successor, a situation that is on course given the emergence of Ambode from nowhere in Lagos politics as the “anointed” candidate of APC in the state. This could also explain the initial reluctance of the State governor to join the APC Ambode Campaign team voluntarily. It should also explain why the governor chose his own successor in Dapo Shashore a SAN like him who was roundly beaten and humiliated by the Tinubu electoral apparatus at the APC’s state election primaries.

Aside from all these however, there is also the story that when Tinubu was short of funds and asked Fashola to provide financial succour, he said the state was broke. When however Ambode, the state Accountant General then was called by Tinubu, Ambode obliged by telling Tinubu the number of a foreign but dormant account in hard currency which Tinubu quoted for Fashola to use when next he called him. This led to an angry Fashola wanting to sack his Accountant General for dishonesty, stealing and disloyalty, all of which did not jell with Tinubu who insisted Ambode should not be sacked. Tinubu went on to make Ambode the successor to Fashola to make his handpicked present Governor know who is the master in the state.
It is necessary for the peace-loving people of Lagos State to know how Akinwunmi Ambode retired or was retired from Lagos State as Accountant General of the state. Either himself or the boss said to have prepared his sack letter should throw more light on the matter. Lagos State does not deserve a Governor who was sacked for stealing money from the state coffers as Accountant General of the State. Neither does the State of Aquatic splendour deserve as governor someone fraudulent enough to shield information from his boss and pass such information to an outsider at the level of Accountant General who should know the sanctity of confidentiality on such matters.

Again the opportunity presents itself for Lagosians to rescue themselves from the hands of the APC gluttons in power and the fraudulent way they have been seizing and manipulating democratic power in the state for their selfish gains and to line their pockets at the expense of the teeming masses in the state. Jimi Agbaje, the PDP Governorship candidate in the state is the face of the much needed change Lagos needs in Alausa to bring sanity to the state. Agbaje is a well-known politician not tainted with fraud and false claims on retirement and hidden accounts like his opponent Akin Ambode who has to clear himself before continuing in the race or withdraw altogether to save his party the APC from further if well-deserved embarrassment. It certainly cannot be business as usual for the powerful and mortally wounded Tinubu succession machinery in the state in this election for governor in Lagos State.

The hand writing is on the wall on this Ambode retirement cover up. Again the odds are in favour of Jimi Agbaje as our next Governor in Lagos State under the banner of the PDP. This is because compared with Ambode the APC candidate, Agbaje is sparkling clean breath of fresh air and sanitiser for Alausa as the next Lagos State Governor.