Why Lagos lawmakers want to impeach Ambode

The impeachment saga in the Lagos State House of Assembly has been painting the state in different colours of corruption and intimidation of the governor over the sponsorship of the 2019 general elections in Lagos State. An elementary inquiry on the preparations for the elections revealed that Senator Solomon Adeola, YAYI, stands out as the prominent financier or sponsor of most campaign activities in Lagos State.

There are indications that lawmakers in the Lagos State House of Assembly were mandated to intimidate Governor Akinwumi Ambode and force him into releasing funds for financing of the campaign activities of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Accordingly, the resistance of Ambode to release funds from the state government treasury to the party has been attributed to the impeachment plot now pervading the state legislature.

Party sources revealed that Governor Ambode is being accused of disbursing funds to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candaite, Jimi Agbaje. Thus, APC leaders were said to have developed mutual distrust against the governor.

 The controversy has divided the political forces in the party and the state government.

Political actors on the side of Governor Ambode have argued that it is not possible for the governor to release money to Agbaje, noting that all payments in the state are approved from Bourdillon. They maintained that no payment is made without the consent of the authority in Bourdillon, contending that Bourdillon cannot approve any payment that will empower a political opponent in the state. Thus, they dismissed the accusation as sheer misgiving.

On the other divide, forces loyal to the throne pointed out that it could be possible for the governor to make such release of funds. They were of the view that the governor purportedly gets $20 million as security vote; alleging that from the security vote, the governor disbursed $10 million (about N3.6 billion) to the PDP candidate. They noted that security vote is not accounted for, as so, the governor could use it for whatever pleases him.

Sources from the Agbaje camp said that it is not possible for Governor Ambode to release money to the PDP governorship candidate. They declared that they have received no fund from the Lagos State Governor for any purpose.

The forces from the Agbaje axis stated that APC leaders are jittery over the rising political profile of Agbaje in the state since the preparations for the 2019 governorship elections began. They said that leaders of the ruling party are perturbed at the ability of the PDP candidate to hold series of Town Hall Meetings and other consultative fora across Lagos State which  cost huge sums of money. They maintained that the PDP governorship candidate has gone deep into the grassroots, convincing the electorate that the appropriate time has come to liberate Lagos State from the reign of one man who has held the state hostage in the past years since 1999. They added that the persuasion made the people reject money from the APC, insisting on making decisions right from their minds without anybody influencing them. This, they said, has got APC leaders fretting, thinking that PDP has given the people more money than the ruling party is offering them. They advised APC leaders to look inward and solve their crisis.

However, there are insinuations from Ambode’s camp that the lawmakers want to impeach Ambode because the party leaders demanded him to contribute certain billions of naira as donation for the governorship electioneering campaign which the governor has continued to resist.

Efforts to reach the Chairman, House Committee on Information or the  Speaker, Right Honourbale Mudashiru Obasa, through his Chief Press Secretary for further details were not successful, as their telephone lines could not be reached at the time of this report.