Ondo guber: You must be joking, Ibrahim tells Aiyedatiwa
Aleading governorship aspirant in the forthcoming All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Ondo state, Jimoh Ibrahim has described Governor Lucky Ayiedatiwa’s statement as a huge joke.
Aiyedatiwa on Friday, April 12, said in Abuja at the National Headquarters of the party shortly after appearing before the 7-man Senator Joshua Lidani-led Screening Committee, that he would pick the party’s ticket, declaring that there is no vacancy in the Government House, Alagbaka, Akure.
However, in his sharp reaction, Senator Ibrahim said the lawmaker said Ayiedatiwa must be joking.
He said: “He’s joking. It is a big joke. He can continue in government with P8, P7. The governor is joking, a big joke, a huge joke he is cracking with you. He is out of that place by the time we finish primary next week, he is gone and there is nothing virtually he can do about it.
“I don’t normally go against people, to me, clear everybody, let them go for primary, let the electorate determine. I have won the election as Senator, I won in six of the six local governments, 65 of the 66 wards, with 111,677 votes against Agboola Ajayi’s 60,000 votes.
“What is the governor talking about? This governor has never won an election, he contested for the House of Representatives, he didn’t win one local government, just two local governments, he couldn’t even win one.
“He was a pair to Aketi, we didn’t vote for him, we voted for Aketi. But I can assure you, the governor is a huge joker.”
Addressing newsmen after spending about 30 minutes with the committee, Ayiedatiwa who expressed optimism about not only picking the party’s ticket, declared that the office of the Ondo State governor is not vacant.
Clad in a white kaftan and a dark brown cap to march, Ayiedatiwa who walked out of the NWC Hall beaming with a smile said he has been screened and cleared to go ahead for the party’s shadow election.
He also took time to shed more light on the controversy surrounding his certificate.
Aiyedatiwa said: “My screening has just been done this morning and all documents that were submitted have to be verified and questions asked where some are not too clear to the screening committee. Questions were asked and answered and at the end of the day, I have been cleared that there are no issues.
“Especially the issue that has to do with the certificate that a petition was written, today that has been put to rest. My certificates are genuine and authentic. I think is just a kind of mischief by some other aspirants who find me to be an aspirant to beat trying to look for a way to discredit my person but that has been verified and put to rest.”
The governor who said he bear no grudge against anybody advised his political adversaries to repent and go to the field rather than looking for fault where there was none.
“I just want to advise them to repent and try to go to the field and work. If they are interested in the seat and the seat is not even vacant that is why they’re trying to do all that they are doing.”
Also, in his reactions, Olusola Oke, another governorship hopeful, said the “no vacancy” declaration by the governor was nothing but a mere “statement of wish and desire”.
Dismissing the governor, Oke said: “It’s an aphorism from all incumbent persons, I heard this one in Lagos when (Akinwunmi) Ambode was there. Ambode said “No vacancy”, he had to leave when he needed to leave. It’s a statement of wish and desire by the governor and it’s a statement that is intended to undermine a democratic exercise.
“If we are going to primaries and the people will have to determine, how would anybody have the guts to say there is no vacancy?”
He however noted that “there is no vacancy between now and February next year, no doubt, but after February, his one-year term will be exhausted and then there’ll be a vacancy.
“I don’t intend to take over from him before the expiration of his one year in office. So, the essence of this exercise is that there will be a vacancy after one one-year term and that he or somebody else will occupy the seat. Having regard to my wide contact with the people, I believe that I’m succeeding him.”
