Absentee Gov: Tension heightens in Ondo as APC group joins PDP to kick against Akeredolu’s absence

The absence of the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu from the state has continued to generate reactions and tension in the state, with calls on the governor to either resume in the state or throw in the towel if he was not capable to continue in office.

In the latest development, a group within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Ondo Liberation Initiative (OLI) gave Akeredolu a seven-day ultimatum to address the people of the state.

In the alternative, the group threatened to seek an interpretation of Section 193 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as relates to the transfer of power to the Deputy Governor in the absence of the governor of a state.

The threat by the OLI is coming after persistent calls by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Akeredolu to either resume office or throw in the towel.

Ripples Nigeria reports that the governor has stayed out of the state since he returned to the country from a three-month medical leave in Germany, electing to stay in his private residence in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Despite growing concerns about the failure of Akeredolu to resume office in Akure, the state capital, some of his aides have given different reasons why the governor has done no wrong, including the argument that Akeredolu can govern the state from anywhere and the current accommodation in Akure for the governor’s use is no longer adequate for his requirement, especially with the state of his health.

However, the spokesman of the OLI, Johnson Alabi, while addressing the media on Thursday, said the absence of Governor Akeredolu in the state since he resumed from medical vacation harms the social, political, and economic development of the state, adding that the absence of the governor in the state and the Deputy, Hon Lucky Aiyedatiwa embattled, the state has been shortchanged among the comity of states in the country.

According to him, the absence of the state’s representative in the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting and the just concluded National Police Council meeting held in Abuja showed that the state was lagging among its contemporaries.

He said: “By the provisions of Section 14 of the Nigeria Constitution, sovereignty belongs to the people, and their security and welfare ‘shall’ be the primary purpose of government.

READ ALSO:Ondo dep gov, Aiyedatiwa, apologizes to Akeredolu

“It is appalling, disgusting, and unreasonable for anyone to sit on a national television station like that and sufficiently abuse the sensibility of the good people of Ondo State by arguing that we cannot demand good governance for Ondo State as bonafide citizens and electorates when the constitution expressly made it mandatory that our participation in ‘our’ government shall be ensured.”

According to Alabi, Section 178 (4) of the Constitution, has made Ondo State the constituency of a sitting governor and and not Oyo State, where Governor Akeredolu has been residing since he returned to Nigeria from Germany where he had gone for medical vacation.

He added: “Our Governor must live with us. Those benefitting illegally from the absence of the Governor are those claiming that the governor can rule from anywhere which is against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“From the foregoing, the Ondo State Liberation Initiative hereby issues a seven-day ultimatum to the Governor to return to Ondo State and speak to the people of the state, or else our group with others shall not hesitate to proceed to seek the Court’s interpretation of Section 193(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on this matter.”

Alabi, who said that section 193 (2) of the 1999 constitution made it mandatory for the governor to hold regular meetings with his Deputy and other members of the State Executive Council, noted that there has not been such a meeting in the past six months in the State.

“We view this act of Mr. Governor as gross misconduct for lying to the people of the state that he had resumed office when in fact has not stepped into Akure or any town in Ondo State since then. He wrote to the State House of Assembly on a letter headed paper bearing Alagbaka, Akure, Ondo State.

“That is a lie and gross misconduct. The position of the Governor is not privately owned as his handlers think, but a public office with constitutional guidelines.

“Ondo State people deserve to know the health status of Mr. Governor whose medical bills are on the taxpayers of the people living in the state.

“OLI would continue to talk very loudly to reject failures and wrong policies of the government in Ondo State because Ondo State people never voted for a governor that would not have Ondo State as a comfortable place to live. We never voted for a Governor in diaspora”, the group said.

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