A coalition of civil society operating under the aegis of Lagos Liberation Movement (LLM) has threatened to mobilise Lagosians to force members of the Lagos State House of Assembly to abandon its plans to commence impeachment process against Lagos State Governor Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos, leaders of the coalition which include United Action for Democracy (UAC) Campaign For Democracy , Center for Public Accountability, Democracy Volunteers said they will resist moves by the House of Assembly members to humiliate the governor out of office for selfish political reasons.
Comrade Mark Adebayo who is the convener of LLM said, ‘’The political situation of Lagos State has become untenably desperate and requires the immediate attention of all true Lagosians and genuine compatriots across Nigeria. This is no time for fence-sitting. This is no time to claim political insulation or neutrality aka “sidonlook”. This is no time to play the ostrich.
‘’ This is no time to allow the rulers of darkness in this state and the merchants of confusion to reign unchallenged. Rather, it is time to rein them in, and the time cannot be more auspicious than now.’’
He noted that impeachment process against Governor Ambode by the Assembly is aimed at humiliating and embarrassing the governor, saying a few political marauders are determined to supplant our democracy and jeopardize the peace and development of the state.
Adebayo said, ‘’We like to reiterate that Ambode is the governor of Lagos State and not the governor of the APC. If they have internal issues within their party, that should not be allowed to negatively affect the smooth running of government and make people suffer. The whole state cannot be reduced to the parochial shenanigans of a highly corrupted political family.
‘’The office of governor of Lagos State is beyond Ambode and as such any further humiliation, disrespect and embarrassment from any quarter will be utterly resisted by the people. Lagosians are unequivocal in their view that Ambode is a performing governor base on his style of governance and project execution and as such any further attack on him will be tantamount to attacking the People. And no one can win against the people.
‘’We call on all men and women and leaders of goodwill including President Muhammadu Buhari who is the leader of the APC to prevail on his political ally not to proceed on this path of self-destruction and call his boys to order.’’
He alleged that the governor was been attacked because he refused to release a whooping N100 billion tax payer’s money to the party to fund political campaigns.
Adebayo said, ‘’It has been alleged that the governor’s refusal to hand over the state’s treasury key to the Lagos slave master-in-chief is the current cause of his travails. His non-compliance with the commandeering directive to make available a whopping 100 Billion Naira by an insatiable political godfather provoked the current thoughtless backlash against the governor.’’
He added that, ‘’We have already put together a comprehensive petition to the anti-graft agencies and multilateral organisations on the reckless and irresponsible waste of the state’s resources by the legislative arm of government. We are interested in knowing how the Speaker of the Lagos State Assembly has been administering a whopping monthly Eight Hundred Million Naira “running costs” allocated to the Assembly which is not inclusive of individual honorable members’ weekly and monthly allowances which are extremely expensive and injurious to the development potentials of Lagos State.’’
