Former Lagos Speaker, Ikuforiji Denies Report Tipping Him Ambode’s Replacement

Former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji on Wednesday totally downplayed and rejected a report making the rounds that the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were planning to use him as the Governorship candidate in replacing the incumbent Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in the coming 2019 elections in Lagos. 

Ikuforiji, in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists, described the report as the handiwork of detractors and mischief makers within the party bent on creating an illusion where no exists.

He said: There is no iota of truth in it and this is just the handiwork of crooked persons who unfortunately we have found ourselves in the same boat with.

“They are just out to make mischief because it is their own stock in trade. After they have tried all means to push the Governor and they have seen that with God and his performance, he is a popular Governor and there is not much they can do with him.

“Now they want to start creating trouble with anyone that they feel is in good relationship with him and of course I know the unscrupulous person who started this whole thing.”

Downplaying the report suggesting that he was eyeing Ambode’s seat,  Ikuforiji recalled that he had in 2016 thrown his weight behind the Governor to perform beyond expectations that would earn him a well deserved second term.

“It is important to tell the world that there is no iota of truth in it and I also want to point out that I am the first person in the entire APC setting in Lagos to have noticed and to have come to a conclusion that our Governor by the time he finishes the second or third year,  everybody would have seen that he deserves a second term and that there is no vacancy in Alausa.

“I said that much as far back as May 2016, during his first anniversary that there is no vacancy in Alausa and I have no reason to change my mind now, but I have more reasons to reaffirm that position,” the former Lagos Speaker said.

Noting that he was not out to join issues with the writer of the baseless report,  he said his decision to speak out was because of “many gullible followers of ours and many of them may just not be smart enough to read in between the lines.

“You can see the article the guy wrote, there was no source quoted. You can see how silly the person is. No journalist of repute can write an article like that.”

Ikuforiji, however,  said the writer had failed with whatever his intentions were,  adding that Governor Ambode was well on his way to securing his second term,  which according to him, will be more outstanding than his first.