Lagos Speaker, Ikuforiji Declares Governorship Intention To Colleagues
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Sabit Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has officially informed his colleagues in the Assembly that he is running for the governorship seat of the state after the expiration of the tenure of the incumbent, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, in 2015.
At a breakfast meeting he held with the lawmakers in his official residence at 46, Joel Ogunnaike Street, GRA, Ikeja on Tuesday, 6th May, 2014, Ikuforiji reportedly stated that he is gunning for the highest seat in the state and that he believes he possesses the required qualities to succeed the incumbent.
‘Breakfast meeting with the Speaker’ is a new programme introduced by Ikuforiji to interact informally with the lawmakers on issues affecting the Assembly: the lawmakers and staff. Tuesday’s meeting was the second in the series.
The Speaker was said to have appealed to the lawmakers, who were not in good terms with him to “let us bury the hatchet and work together so that we can move this state forward if I am picked by our party for the exalted office.”
Last week, the Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Information, Strategy and Security and closest ally to Ikuforiji in the Assembly, Segun Olulade, gathered correspondents covering the Assembly activities and informed them of the Speaker’s aspiration. Olulade thereafter solicited for the support of the correspondents.
He reportedly told them that Ikuforiji is the best man for the job and that the governorship was specifically zoned to Lagos East because of him.
Ikuforiji is from Epe and with his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) zoning its governorship ticket to the Lagos East Senatorial District, he is regarded as one of the front runners for the APC’s ticket.
Ikuforiji is the longest serving Speaker in the history of the state House of Assembly having become the substantive Speaker in December 2005 in the 5th Assembly when then Speaker, Jokotola Pelumi was impeached by majority members of the Assembly.
He was re-elected Speaker between 2007 and 2011 for the 6th Assembly and currently for the 7th Assembly starting from 2011 and terminating in 2015.
He is serving his third term in the Assembly, during the first two terms, he represented Epe State Constituency 1. Presently, he is representing Ikeja State Constituency 1.
