The sleepy town of Epe, Lagos State has recently become very important in the scheme to get a possible replacement for Governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola.
This follows rumours of an unwritten agreement of zoning the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2015 governorship election in Lagos to the area.
Like other desperate aspirants who now claim ties with the town ahead of the party primaries later in the year, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji may not be leaving any part of the struggle to providence, as his posters and banners now flood the town.
In one of the banners, Ikuforiji was described as the son of the soil, an original son of Epe. The Power House, which allegedly sponsored the banners and posters, called him “the speaking speaker” and urged the people to support him.
Though the speaker has often refused to state categorically his ambition for the position, his mien, carriage and disposition have always betrayed him just as his friends and colleagues at the House have confirmed that he is eyeing the topmost seat in the state.
Ikuforiji, who turned his recent visit to the town for his registration with the APC into a carnival, is said to be very confident that he is the anointed aspirant for the position and creates the belief that he is close to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the party, who is believed to be a key factor in the determination of Fashola’s successor.
“He believes that he is the most qualified of all the aspirants on the platform of the party currently. This is because he is a full-blood Epe indigene unlike the other aspirants whose mothers or grandmothers hailed from the area”, one of his loyalists told Huhuonline.com.
Femi Hamzat, a commissioner in the state and major contender for the position, is partly from Epe and Ogun State. His father is from Ogun while his mother is from Epe, but since last year, he had started aligning himself with the Epe people. Hamzat is banking on the support of Governor Fashola.
But beyond the fanfare with which Ikuforiji was welcomed to Epe, many residents of the area do not seem happy with him. According to them, as Speaker for over nine years, Ikuforiji hardly attracted development to the area.
Another issue he may have to contend with is the case he has in court against some people he constantly describes as faceless. He has been battling against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of engaging in financial dealings without due process. The case has lingered, with EFCC allegedly adopting several strategies to delay it.
A major challenge the speaker may also face with time involves the grievances of some lawmakers believed to be in his black book.
These lawmakers, according to Huhuonline.com findings, were part of those who voted against him during the electoral process to elect the speaker of the House in the seventh Assembly.
One of them told Huhuonline.com that the speaker has not forgiven them since the period and has always sidelined them on issues that should benefit them.
“Now that the speaker is planning to contest, we would have rallied round him. The 39 of us would have made up his group going to our various constituencies to campaign for him, but this is not the case”, a lawmaker told Huhuonline.com.
“As we speak now, he does not have a formidable structure on ground to help him carry out the campaign, especially at the grassroots, and many of us are not prepared to assist him because we are angry”.
It is learnt that the speaker is not taking anything to chances after his experience prior to the 2011 gubernatorial election. Then, he bought his campaign buses after he was given the assurance of replacing Fashola, who then had issues with his predecessor. But on the day the party should hand the flag over to its candidate, Fashola was picked against the speaker.
Ikuforiji then refused to go to the Senate, which was an option given him by the party, rather opting to return to the House. According to sources close to him, he was scared that he may not be relevant and his career would be cut short if he went to the Senate.
To return to the House, the party moved him to one of the constituencies of Ikeja, as he was allegedly disallowed by his people from representing them a third time.
His leadership of the seventh Assembly has since inception faced serious challenges from the nation’s anti-graft agency, allegedly acting on a petition by those who think he is a threat to their ambition.
