Barely six weeks to the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has narrowed down the list of his potential successors to seven and submitted the list to the state’s political kingmaker, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to pick from.

Before drawing up the list, Fashola invited the party’s governorship aspirants for an interactive session on their vision for the state.

A highly placed source confided after the session that seven of the party’s governorship aspirants participated in the screening process, after which the governor prepared a list of likely successors in the order of preference.

The source said the aspirants invited by the governor were the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji; Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; and former Accountant-General of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode.

Other aspirants at the session were the Senate Minority Whip, Senator Ganiyu Solomon; former Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Tola Kasali; former Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan and the Senate Vice-Chairman on Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Senator Gbenga Ashafa.

The source said former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Olasupo Shasore, who was not part of the aspirants interviewed at the session, also made the list of likely successors Fashola submitted to the party leaders.

According to him, seven aspirants were invited for a private discussion with the governor on their plans and vision for Lagos.

The meeting, it was gathered, took place precisely on September 22 and each of them had a useful session with the governor.

The source said Fashola had invited the aspirants “to a private session individually. All the aspirants got to the venue as early as 7a.m. The governor had a private session with them one after the other, though the reason for the invitation was not clear to them until the session kicked off.”

He added that the governor did not disclose to the aspirants the rationale behind the invitation, though he essentially interacted with everyone of them on the vision for Lagos to enable him prepare a list of likely successors to the party leaders.

After the meeting, the source said Fashola privately had another meeting with Tinubu, the APC National Leader, during which he discussed the outcome of the interactive session he had with the aspirants contesting on the platform of the party.

At the meeting with Tinubu, the source said the governor presented the list of likely successors, in which all the aspirants were listed in order of preference or ranked perhaps according to their performance at the session.

Even though he did not participate in the interactive section that took place at Marina, the source said Shasore, who was Fashola’s attorney-general during his first term from 2007 to 2011, was ranked above other aspirants.

He added that the governor might have reconsidered his support for Hamzat, who had served as the Commissioner for Science and Technology and now a serving commissioner for works and Infrastructure.

•Adapted from a THISDAY report. Photo shows Governor Fashola.

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