The Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly has declared support for the aspiration of the state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa to continue as the governor of the state, saying that they don’t want another party.
Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Olamide Oladiji stated this on Monday when he led members of the Assembly to pay a courtesy visit on the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje and to thank him for the role he played in resolving the crisis that rocked the state prior to the death of the former governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.
Oladiji also said they were at the Secretariat to tell the National Chairman that they have resolved all their issues that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa gas done well so far and that they have resolved to back him to lead the party in the forthcoming 2024 governorship election in the state.
“And We are here also to tell him that as far as we are concerned, those of us around amongst our members and those that are on their way that we are fully in support of continuity of APC-led government. We are in support of continuity. We want APC to continue with the governments of Ondo State. We believe it will work out and we are giving them 100% assurance that the primary elections will be peaceful”.
On the open letter earlier written by the National Assembly caucus alleging that Gov. Aiyedatiwa was not handling the state well, the Speaker said: “In respect of the letter that some few members of the House of Representatives wrote to Mr President. Members here, we disagree with the letter.
“And because we are the honourable members, we are the MHAs in our various state constituencies and they we have about almost 15 of us here present or you know what it means we have 22 APC members in the House of Assembly.
“We have 13 here now and another two are on their way coming. So that is about 15. And if we are telling you that the state under the leadership of Mr. Governor is at peace, you know, we mean what we are saying. Then apart from that also, for now, the appointment he has done is just for six commissioners. He did it you know senatorial by senatorial, two per senatorial district, of which it’s still very okay. Like those people that are complaining.
“I want to believe that they have not been coming to Ondo State to come and witness what is going on there. They are permanently in Abuja here. We are the ones that are closer to the grassroot, we know what is going on in Ondo State”.
He said the achievements of the incumbent governor are out there, adding that he has started the recruitment of 2000 workers in the academic sector, and at the same time, he has worked at the ODRS and that he did not stop the legacy started by the late governor.
“He directed all the contractors to go back to the site which everybody in the state applauded. So what am I trying to say in essence is that as I’m talking to you now, all the contractors are now on the site working and other projects too are ongoing in Ondo State. And there’s a synergy now between the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature. There’s peace in Ondo State.
“And we are all working together we are praying together and I can give you 100% assurance that our primary elections come April 2024 is going to be very, very Peaceful”.
When asked if some members of the Assembly will not decide to contest the election, the Speaker said: “I’m not an aspirant. I’m a legislator but as far as I’m concerned, the issue of betrayal does not come in.
We lost the late governor to death. The constitution is very clear that when a sitting Governor dies, you know, the deputy governor will have to take over. So I do believe that the issue of betrayal does not come into this issue”.
In his response, APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje thanked his visitors for coming and also for ensuring that there was peace in the Ondo state chapter of the party.
Ganduje equally tasked them to ensure that the scheduled primary election was conducted in an atmosphere that would be rancour-free.
“We are so happy that we waded into that and also Mr President of the federal republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was so kind enough to devote his time to see that that problem was resolved amicably.
“I want to call upon you, very soon you know your government is an off-season as far as the election is concerned. This year there will be an election for governorship in Ondo State and there are many things that must happen according to the programme; we started with verification of party membership, then will lead to the screening of aspirants and of course, there will be primaries among the aspirants so that we can come up with a candidate for our party.
“Ondo state is an APC state and we will continue to maintain it as an APC state. We need your cooperation so that we can have free and transparent primaries in the state so that we can shore up our opportunity and believe our members are equal to the task with good synergy between the party and your institution as members of the State House of Assembly.
“We thank you for coming and we assure you that have prepared a well-articulated programme for the primaries in Ondo state in order to produce a candidate”, Ganduje concluded.
