The Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwoolu state is in trouble if recent developments in Nigeria’s political space, particularly Lagos, is anything to go by.
The state governor who has managed to shrug off attacks from the State House of Assembly and its Speaker, Mudasiru Obasa, has been accused of sponsoring the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
In January, Obasa was impeached by the majority members of the state House of Assembly who accused him of corruption, highhandedness and abuse of office, a move those close to power in the state claimed may not have escaped the imprimatur of the governor.
The governor has denied that he had anything to do with Obasa’s removal at time time, but the Speaker who managed to return to office though the backing of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, believes that Sanwoolu teamed up with his enemies in the Assembly to impeach him.
“May be it’s the time for the Speaker to fight back at the governor, because the allegation that Sanwoolu gave money to the president’s biggest rival is a weighty one that any politician who know his onions can easily latch on. Obasa is a very deft politicians if you consider his political trajectory in the state,” a top political source in the ruling party in the state said.
The alleged funds were said to have been funneled through Governor Sanwo-Olu’s ally Aisha Achimugu, a prominent businessman who, according to the rumour mills is having an affair with the governor.
Apart from Abubakar, the LP Presidential candidate, Peter Obi was said to have also received funding from the businesswoman, who has now been accused, by those close to the president of working with the governor to scuttle Tinubu’s presidential ambition using ‘Lagos Money’.
The magazine reported that Sanwo-olu raised eye brow after he attended the birthday bash of Achimugu last year in one of the Caribbean countries.
Analysts say the governor would be very lucky to escape the current onslaught against him by his traducers, describing the current allegation as a possible way by the speaker and other key interest in the state not happy with Sanwoolu, to get back at the governor, who was allegedly fingered in Obasa’s impeachment two months ago.
“Considering the weight of the current onslaught against the governor, Sanwoolu may have pinned himself into the conner, if it’s acutally true that he worked against his benefactor, President Tinubu,’ an APC source told the magazine on Friday.
According to close sources in Aso Villa, the president was riled after he learnt that Sanwoolu, his ally had something to do with Abubakar and Obi because he had never thought that the governor who rode oh his wings to office could go behind to stab him in the back.
“The president was furious and felt betrayed when he was informed that this actually happened,” a top administration official directly briefed on the matter told The Gazette this week. “He has absorbed deceptive political tactics all his life, but he was uncharacteristically hurt by this one,” The Gazette reports.
The governor has yet to deny the allegation but Abubakar claimed that he had had no dealings with the governor, whom he has ‘never met”.
In a statement issued by Abubakar’s media aide on Thursday, Paul Ibe the former vice president said President Tinubu is after him and the governor, saying the aim is to destroy their reputations.
In the statement, titled “Halt This Tinubu’s Voyage of Misadventure and Campaign of Calumny Against Atiku Abubakar,” the former vice president noted that it’s unthinkable that he could be linked with Governor Sanwoolu who he had never had any dealings or met closely.
Abubakar said, “The Waziri of Adamawa does not know Governor Sanwo-Olu and has never met him before. The idea that Atiku, who has no connection with Sanwo-Olu, would be involved in a financial transaction with him during the 2023 election is baseless and illogical,
“Since the EFCC has been drawn into this controversy, we challenge the agency to disclose the outcome of its alleged investigation. The Nigerian public, including Atiku and Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, deserve transparency. ”
From all indications, Governor Sanwoolu may be walking a very tightrope, as the days ahead will tell if he can successfully escape the trap set for him by his political enemies in the State of Excellence.
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