Former governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his successor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, are engaged in another round of political battle following revelations that Fashola has rejected Tinubu’s offer that the Lagos State governor accept to be the presidential running mate of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu on the ticket of the Action Congress(AC).

The Sunday Tribune was reliably informed that Tinubu and other allies who concocted the idea of drafting Ribadu into the race had another motive behind the plot-to ease out Fashola from the governance of Lagos in 2011.

The AC  has started mounting pressures on Ribadu to contest the presidential slot in 2011, hoping to catch in on his popularity among a section of the vocal civil society.

The party was said to have sent emissaries to Ribadu even before President Goodluck Jonathan granted him pardon and converted his dismissal  from the police to retirement.  The emissaries met with Ribadu in Dubai, United Arab Emirates(UAE).

Sources close to the party confirmed that the former Lagos State governor had thought of the idea of easing out Fashola from the governance of Lagos and installing one of his closest loyalists, Mr. Muiz Banire,  and that the idea of pairing Fashola with Ribadu came in handy.

While negotiations were still on with the former anti-corruption czar, Tinubu was said to have broached the idea  of Fashola being Ribadu’s running mate with the Lagos State governor, but the governor was said to be reluctant to embrace the option.

It was learnt that Fashola immediately called a secret meeting with Ribadu and assured him of funding for the presidential project but that he would prefer to contest a second term in Lagos.

News of the meeting were later to get to Tinubu who felt that his successor had undercut his strategy.

The Lagos State governor was said to have argued at the meeting with Ribadu that he had so many unfinished works in the state and that his successor in 2011 might use the non completion of some projects to blackmail him.

It was gathered that the party hierarchy had been informed that Fashola would not take the running mate option in 2011 and that the attention had since been shifted to the South-South where the search was on for a credible Ijaw candidate who would accept to run with Ribadu. The search for an ijaw man as running mate was said to have been decided upon following realisations that Ribadu/Governor Adams Oshiomhole ticket could not fly. The Edo State governor is a muslim like Ribadu, while Oshiomhole is also not from a dominant ethnic group or oil producing area of the South-South.

But the presidential ambition of the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has pitted him against his closest friend, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, it was gathered on Monday.