Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede, has described as arrogant and oppressive, a statement by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will rule the state forever.
Akeredolu had been widely quoted to have made the statement while receiving a campaign office donated to him by an APC governorship aspirant, Ife Oyedele, in Akure on Monday.
The governor was quoted to have said: “We need to work for the party. The APC will continue to rule this state forever.”
He also said it was not the turn of the Central senatorial district to produce the governor, saying the district should wait for the next 12 years for its turn.
But, in a statement by the Head, Media Research of Eyitayo Jegede’s campaign Organisation, Samuel Fasua, the PDP governorship candidate said Akeredolu’s utterances were least expected of a governor.
He said: “Wonders, they say, shall never end. What on earth would move a governor to be playing god and talking down on the people, that a particular political party will rule them forever?
“It is altogether amusing that the governor has turned himself to ‘a prophet of everlasting rule’, for a party that has left the people of the state impoverished and allowed social infrastructure to decay in the last three and half years.
“That statement was not only arrogant and oppressive, it also presented a supposed leader talking down on the people, out of desperation to stave off a looming electoral defeat.”
He also noted that while Jegede had been highlighting his programmes of action as campaign issues, the reverse was the case with the APC flag-bearer.
“While Jegede has been seeking the votes of the people, telling them the programmes he intends to carry out in four years, our friend at the other party has been going around with rotational governorship, as his sole campaign issue. As they say, the hood does not necessarily make the monk.”