The storm raised by the troubling politicking over the All Progressives Congress (APC) party nomination for the Governorship of Lagos State in the 2019 polls continues to rage unabated, and unlikely to dissipate any time soon.

Before anyone, however, can hazard a guess on how the saga will likely end, it is prudent that he visits Epe, the hometown of the incumbent, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. The mood in Epe–a town gripped by tension––is fever pitch. The people’s sentiment is at boiling point. In rallying for its own, people of Epe town have gone ballistic spiritually to quell the tempest threatening to bring to a halt the upward trajectory of their rising son.

Gov. Ambode is presently battling an internal wrangling within his party that has resulted in the emergence of two other APC stalwarts, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Mr Obafemi Hamzat, who have both signified their interest in slugging it out with him at the party’s primary for the APC governorship ticket in Lagos State. The emergence of the duo followed a rumoured frosty relationship between Ambode and APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who hitherto was regarded as his political godfather and mentor.

While cloak-and-dagger maneuverings continue to play out in the party, the people of Epe have moved the fight to a spiritual level as they embark on combative prayers to dismantle the various forces arraying against the embattled governor.

While tension is rising in the political firmament of the centre of excellence, a group of APC elders called the Governor’s Advisory Council, GAC dominated mainly by Tinubu’s trusted allies, will today at a scheduled meeting in Ikeja take a final position on who the party will present to the public for support in the 2019 polls.

The body had met on Tuesday to consider pleas and various interventions from different groups and prominent individuals to consider Ambode for a second term. The meeting, however, ended without a definite answer to the embattled governor. One of the decisions taken at the Tuesday meeting was that the governor will not be allowed to sit in today’s meeting when the party elders will decide his fate. A notable source who attended the meeting told Saturday Sun that, “For us, we already know the direction things will go in today’s meeting because after the Tuesday’s parley, Asiwaju left us with a strongly coded rhetorical question, that is, ‘can you pack back into a bottle the beer you want to drink after spilling same on the floor?”

With this, today’s meeting may just be a mere ceremony to say a capital NO to the governor as majority of those who will attend the event are already bitter against Ambode and have not hidden their opposition to his style of governance and bid for a second term.

Saturday Sun visited Epe on September 18, 2018, and found a town that was to a large extent a cauldron of anger. Right from the park, various gatherings––of Okada riders, free readers at newsstands and traders––were engaged in animated discussions and heated debates that centred on Governor Ambode’s current political travails.

That was not surprising, given that the governor has proven himself as an illustrious son of the soil, having brought remarkable infrastructural development to Epe, a community that was hitherto an economic backwater.

A major development has been a rare show of unity between Christians and Muslims, who set aside their religious differences and joined forces together in daily prayers of intercession and vigil for Gov. Ambode at the Saint Michael Anglican Church, which is the governor’s family place of worship.

The over 100-year-old church at Popo-Oba Street has assembled a 21-man prayer warrior team. In no time, the team has since been joined by a host of volunteers, both Christians (from other denominations) and some Muslims.

Findings by Saturday Sun showed that the team holds some of its prayer sessions for the governor on a large expanse of land opposite the church.

During a visit to the church, some of the volunteers were sighted sitting on white plastic chairs on the land across from the church. In their response to questions from Saturday Sun, they all spoke in unison about their commitment to the “Save Ambode Prayer” project.

•Excerpted from a Saturday Sun report