Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State, Mr Eyitayo Jegede has described as arrogant and oppressive, a statement by the Ondo State governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will rule the state forever.
Akeredolule had been widely quoted to have made the statement while receiving a campaign office donated to him by an APC governorship aspirant, Mr. Ife Oyedele, in Akure, on Monday.
Akeredolu was quoted to have said that “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 Organization, Mr. 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’s altogether amusing that the governor has turned himself to ‘a prophet of eververlasting 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 the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede had been highlighting his programmes of action as campaign issues, the reverse was the case for the APC flagbearer.
“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. That a particular governorship candidate comes from a particular part of the state does not translate to competence, especially given the onerous task of proper management of the human and material resources of our dear state.
“The people can no longer be fooled with irrelevant tales, in the face of mass poverty and apparant display of opulence by some pseudo-aristocrats, who are currently presiding over the fiefdom that Ondo State has been reduced to.
“That ugly scenario, among others, is exactly what our people seek to erase, come October 10, this year,” he added.
