15 legislators and Ondo speaker support Aiyedatiwa's governorship bid

Not one but fifteen members of the Ondo State House of Assembly have stated their support for Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the state’s current governor, to secure the All Progressives Congress ticket and win the November 2024 governorship election.

Despite having only been in office for a short while, the lawmakers, led by Speaker Olamide Oladiji, said that Aiyedatiwa has pleased them thus far by carrying on the legacy of the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.

The endorsement comes one week after a vote of no confidence in the speaker was voted by some members of the state Assembly. During the governor’s official announcement to enter the campaign a few weeks ago, the speaker publicly promised Aiyedatiwa that he would have the backing of roughly eighteen lawmakers.

During a Monday visit to the APC national secretariat in Abuja, Oladiji, however, told reporters that the governor had done more than enough to get the endorsement.

The Speaker, who arrived with a group of fifteen state legislators, declared that the governor had made paying their wages a top priority, started hiring roughly 2,000 health care providers, and kept friendly relations with the state’s legislature, judiciary, and administrative branch.

He said, “We are here to tell you that as far as we are concerned, those of us here and our members who are on their way, are fully in support of continuity of the APC-led government. We are in support of continuity. We believe it will work out and we are giving them 100 per cent assurance that the primary elections will be peaceful.

“In respect of the letter that a few members of the House of Representatives wrote to Mr. President (concerning Aiyedatiwa’s endorsement). Our members here disagree with the letter. That’s also because we are honourable members in our various state constituencies.

“We have almost 15 of us here present. Do you know what it means? We have 22 APC members in the House of Assembly. We are 13 here now and another two are on their way coming. So that makes 15 of us. And we are telling you that the state under the leadership of Mr. Governor is at peace.

“Maybe I should put the question to my members. Do we have anyone of you who want to contest against Aiyedatiwa? His achievements, the achievements of the incumbent governor are out there. Presently, he has started the recruitment of 2,000 workers in the academic sector, and at the same time, he has worked at the ODRS (Ondo State Revenue Service). The most important thing is 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. There is a synergy now between the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature.”

Prior to the state’s APC primaries, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of the party, welcomed the group and gave the assurance that the ruling party will offer all gubernatorial candidates fair and equal opportunities.

Ganduje further related how, just before Akeredolu passed away, he and President Bola Tinubu were forced to intervene in the political standoff between the lawmakers and Aiyedatiwa.

He said, “We can’t disconnect legislators from the office of the party here in Abuja because there is always a relationship between you and the office. I call upon you to cooperate with us as we conduct the primary election.

“In this year’s election in Ondo, there are many things that must happen according to our programme, starting with verification of members, screening of aspirants, purchase of expression of interest and nomination forms, and the primaries to pick candidates.

“Ondo state is an APC state and will continue to maintain it. We need your cooperation to conduct free and transparent primaries. We believe our members are equal to the task. What we are seeing here is that there would be cooperation and good synergy with state Assembly members. We have planned a well-articulated programme for the primaries to produce a candidate.”