Akeredolu Retains Gov Title As Aiyedatiwa Fully Takes Charge Of Ondo Govt

The agreement has been hammered out.

Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedetiwa will fully take charge of the affairs of the Ondo state Government from Monday, November 27, 2023.

Aiyedatiwa will start functioning as the acting Governor with executive powers, unlike the mirage of an arrangement put in place when ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu traveled abroad for prolonged medical treatment.

The new disposition is the fallout of the intervention by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The President’s stepping into the festering situation ends the unceasing attempts to force out Aiyedatiwa as Deputy Governor – while also extracting an understanding from the latter not to go after his perceived enemies for everything to die down.

Akeredolu who is still nursing himself back to good health retains the title of Governor in name to allow him to officially see out his tenure, in honor of his past deeds as state chief executive and top party man.

Aiyedatiwa also reiterated his loyalty to Akeredolu – to protect his interests -at the meeting where the agreement was fashioned out.

Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Oladiji Olamide, who was at the forefront of the move to remove Aiyedatiwa, promised that the legislative body would abide by the new positioning.

All other stakeholders and party leaders in the state took the same stance.

At the meeting that President Tinubu hosted at the State House in Abuja on Friday, November 24, 2023, were Deputy Governor Aiyedatiwa, representatives of Governor Akeredolu, federal and state lawmakers of Ondo, Secretary to the State Government, officials of the state’s chapter of the All Progressives Congress, and other stakeholders in Ondo state.

Providing an insight into what is likely to come as the new Sheriff in town, Aiyedatiwa stated at the meeting “I want to say that I pledge to all of you that I embrace every one of you. I put behind all that has happened before now. I’ve let go and also let God, just as the President has advised us.⁣

⁣“And I want to say that with no offence, no guile in my mind whatsoever. All that has happened is politics. Impeachment is part of politics. If you survive it, it is also politics. It has come. I’ve survived it, and every other thing is in the past. ⁣

⁣“It is one big family and our father has intervened to bring all the children together to remain under the same family and with the position that I occupy, I will carry every one of you along in every decision that needs to be taken and in everything that we do, we will work together; the executive and the legislature will work together to ensure that governance is on the right track.”

This development is expected to put an end to the onslaught by power mongers all out to force Aiyedatiwa out of office as part of efforts to determine who succeeds Akeredolu as the Governor of Ondo state next year.

Akeredolu’s protracted ill health fuelled the development that put the state on edge and stalled governance as different actors pitched tents.