Nine governors meet Tinubu over Oshiomhole, Obaseki’s crisis

Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola (right); his counterparts from other states, Godwin Obaseki (Edo); Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos); National Leader, APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu; his counterparts in Plateau and Niger states, Simon Lalong and Abubakar Sani Bello during the governors’ meeting with Tinubu over Adams Oshiohmole and Obaseki’s crisis in Lagos…yesterday.

TRACKING____The embattled governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki and eight of his colleagues on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) have met with the National Leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, to find a solution to the ongoing impasse between Obaseki and the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, ahead of the Edo APC governorship primary scheduled to hold on June 22, 2020.

Although details of the meeting, which held at the State House, Marina, Lagos State and hosted by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was not disclosed as at press time yesterday, a source said: “It has to do with the face-off between Oshiomhole and Obaseki ahead of the governorship primary and the governorship election scheduled to hold on September 19, 2020.”

The meeting, The Guardian learnt, had in attendance Governor Umar Ganduje (Kano), Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun) and others. Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Dapo Abiodun were absent.

The source said the governors must have come to plead with Tinubu to intervene on behalf of their colleague (Obaseki) who is seeking re-election and second term ticket on the platform of APC. The position of the governors, as disclosed, was that they do not want the party to repeat what it did to the immediate past governor of Lagos State, Akinwunmi Ambode, who despite the fact that majority of APC members in Lagos attested to his performance in four years, was denied second term ticket in a direct primary held on October 2, 2018 ahead the 2019 governorship election.

It was also learnt that the governors were uncomfortable over the way Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the flag bearer of the major opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2016 Edo State governorship election, who recently defected to APC at the instance of Oshiomhole, emerged as a candidate through a consensus arrangement.

They also expressed concern that such emergence of Ize-Iyamu could lead to serious legal issue that may cost APC in the state as it happened in Zamfara during the 2019 general elections.