Ambode’s impeachment: Tinubu demanded N200 billion to fund election, group alleges 

LAGOS, Nigeria – Lagos is on fire following the plot by the State House of Assembly to impeach the state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. Already there has been mass protests all over the states, warning of dire consequence if the governor is forcefully removed. Leading the agitators is the Lagos Liberation Movement, which has vowed to resist the action and free Lagos state from the grip of Bourdillion and National Leader of the All Progressive Congress(APC) Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Convener of LLM, Comrade Mark Adebayo, expressed these feelings during a press conference in Lagos jointly addressed by the organisation’s Secretary, Comrade Lawson Babajide (Cadre) and Convener, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, (CACOBAG), Comrade Alhaji Toyin Raheem. According to them, Ambode’s fresh trouble started because he refused to part with a whopping sum of N200 billion for Tinubu to fund his “political protéges running for public offices in the 2019 elections in the state and outside the state.”

The press conference was entitled: “Lagos State Assembly is becoming a political abattoir for the murder of democracy in Nigeria.” The LLM said, “His non-compliance with the commandeering directive to make available a whopping N200 Billion by an insatiable political godfather provoked the current thoughtless backlash against the governor. 

“We are watching with keen attention the whole developments surrounding the current show of shame and shall mobilise Lagosians against the governor should he succumb to the blackmail of the prebendalist political class in the state to loot the state’s treasury at their behest. Starting tomorrow (Thursday), we are commencing a mass action all over the state against these forces of darkness and enemies of the people masquerading as public officers.”

Adebayo called on President Muhammadu Buhari who is the authentic leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and not the honorary one bestowed on Asiwaju Tinubu to humor – not honor – him, “to prevail on his political ally not to proceed on this path of self-destruction.”

“The  political situation of Lagos State has become untenably desperate and requires the immediate attention of all true Lagosians and  all Yoruba sons and daughters. 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. 

“The time has come and the day has dawned for Lagosians to reject and resist en mass the bondage cast over us for the last twenty years by Bourdillon fiat and it’s deathly executioners…It is public knowledge that from two days ago members of the Lagos State Assembly commenced what is tantamount to a game of shame and senseless the results of which are predictably destructive by the ill-advised commencement of impeachment processes against the incumbent governor of the state, Governor Akinwumi Ambode. The question that most Lagosians are asking is “why?”. 

The text reads further: “However, the reasons are not farfetched. It is fundamentally the handiwork and retrogressive machinations of political forces of evil determined to keep Lagos State in perpetual bondage of a man playing god over more than 20 million Lagosians with a view to perpetuating a political dynasty of lootocratic recklessness, marauding corruption and a relay regime of nepotistic subjugation accentuated by an intractable malaise of primitive accumulation of the most deadly genre spearheaded, commanded, guided and goaded by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu we daresay. 

“The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended is unambiguous in its provisions as to what infractions or illegalities can activate an impeachment process against the executive arm of government. The Lagos Liberation Movement and our coalition partners are convinced beyond reasonable doubts that the governor did not commit and has not committed any offence known to those provisions of the constitution or any law or statute or legal instrument thereof. 

“What we are witnessing by this senseless and dangerous game of potentially unquantifiable crises is orchestrated by selfish interests of one or very few dramatis personae who are desperate to have unrestricted access to the state’s treasury to squander on their political protéges running for public offices in the 2019 elections in the state and outside the state. It has been alleged that the governor’s refusal to hand over the state’s treasury key to the Lagos slavemaster-in-chief is the current cause of his travails.

“Assuming without conceding that the governor committed any infraction, isn’t it much more expedient to allow him complete his term which is less than four months away? After illegally denying him a well-deserved second term via a brazen daylight robbery of unprecedented proportions, which he took in his characteristic unassuming strides, you have chosen to attack and desecrate the Constitution of the country and stall the state’s development in a ridiculous and shameful manner by flying the kite of impeachment. That will not happen in this state. 

“It is already a known fact that Lagosians are fed up with the atrocities of the slavemaster-in-chief and are determined to overthrow his destructive legacies through the ballot in the next governorship, national and state Assembly elections in Lagos State, any attempt to attempt to follow through their threat of impeaching the governor will only hasten their political oblivion because Lagosians will make the state uninhabitable for them and their task master. 

“We have already put together a comprehensive petition to the antigraft agencies 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 state Assembly has been administering a whopping monthly N800 million “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. 

“Moreover, we have noticed with disturbing disappointment the absence of constituency projects despite the assembly members collecting large sums of state funds under the guise of executing constituency projects. LLM and our coalescing organizations are embarking on a thorough inspection of all constituency projects for which funds have been released in the last four years and will make a comprehensive report of our findings public in the next one week. 

“He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. Therefore, all the members in state Assembly must be prepared to account for every Naira they have collected since their inception in 2015 till date. 

“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. The whole state cannot be reduced to the parochial shenanigans of a highly corrupted  political family. 

“We call on all men and women and leaders of goodwill including President Muhammadu Buhari who is the authentic leader of the APC and not the honorary one bestowed on Asiwaju Tinubu to humor – not honor – him, to prevail on his political ally not to proceed on this path of self-destruction. 

“In his indelible book, The Man Died, Professor Wole Soyinka of living memory wrote inter alia  “The dramatist overdramatizes himself once too often”. By this, he meant that everything done in excess ends in calamity. 

The Lagos State Assembly is embarking on a voyage that can only have a disastrous end for them. We advise them to disembark now before too late.”

Aluta continua until victoria a certa. 

Comrade Mark Adebayo (Afric’son) 

Convener, LLM 

Comrade Lawson Babajide (Cadre)

Secretary, LLM 

Comrade Alhaji Toyin Raheem, 

Convener, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, CACOBAG.