Osun 2018: Tinubu meets Aregbesola, APC chairman, Osun Speaker in Lagos

Against the build-up to September 22 governorship election in Osun, the national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu has held a meeting in Lagos with Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the chairman of the ruling party in the state, Mr Gboyega Famoodun and the Speaker, Osun State House of Assembly, Hon Najeem Salaam, Tribune Online reliably gathered.

Sources informed our correspondent that the meeting was summoned by Tinubu to pave way for a rancour-free primary exercise, where the standard bearer of the party would emerge.

Presently, no fewer than 27 governorship aspirants, including the Chief of Staff to Aregbesola, Mr Gboyega Oyetola, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Hon Najeem Salaam, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Lasun Yussuff, Dr Abiodun Saka Layonu (SAN) were jostling for the ticket of APC ahead of the primary fixed for July 7, 2018.

According to one of the sources, the Lagos meeting had become critical to douse the seeming tension among some perceived strong aspirants and also reaffirm the sincerity of the party’s leadership to conduct a free and fair primary election to determine among the contenders who wins the APC’s governorship ticket.

Meanwhile, one of the gubernatorial aspirants, who is also the Speaker of the state legislature, Hon Salaam, on Sunday declared that Tinubu, who is the former governor of Lagos State had not ordered him to step down his governorship ambition.

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In a statement authorised by his media aide, Mr Goke Butika, which was made available to the Tribune Online in Osogbo, the Speaker confirmed that he attended the meeting in Lagos, in company of Aregbesola and some other stalwarts of the APC in Osun, but emphasised that there was no order from Tinubu on his part to drop his ambition to govern the state, just as he admonished his supporters to disregard such information trending on the social media.

According to the statement, “Hon Salaam has not abandoned his governorship aspiration, as well as his advocacy for the zoning of governorship candidacy of his party to Osun West senatorial district, saying that he and other party leaders elected to deliberate on how political development would be devoid of tension.”

“We have successful deliberations on some issues relating to political development, particularly the development in our party (APC) in our state at the Lagos meeting and I attended the meeting on my capacity as the Speaker of the state parliament not as governorship aspirant and I owe it a duty to brief stakeholders, my campaign structure and the forum of Osun West governorship aspirants in which I was made to coordinate on the issues.”