The bitter feud between Ondo Governor, Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and his deputy, Hon Agboola Ajayi is not yet over as both aspirants have continued to trade blames at each other exactly a week to the Ondo governorship election.
Akeredolu who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate had accused his deputy and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) Ajayi of betraying him despite receiving the highest amount, N13m as salary for a Deputy Governor.
The governor who spoke at a radio programme in Akure on Thursday had said, “Agboola (Ajayi) does not want to wait for his time. I made him comfortable, I asked him to represent me in so many places but some people were warning me, I said they should leave him alone.
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“No deputy governor has collected what he was collecting in the history of the state. I gave him N13million monthly. His predecessors did not collect as much as that. No deputy governor collects as much as that in Nigeria. I gave him enough room to operate, yet he betrayed me.”
But Ajayi on Friday reacted by saying he earned N12 million naira and not the N13 million as claimed by Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
The deputy went ahead to pour more venom by saying say it was nothing compared to the security vote of N750 million and an imprest of about N150 million, Akeredolu collects monthly from the Federal government.
Ajayi alleged that the wife of the governor and son also collect millions of naira as imprest on monthly basis without being constitutionally elected.
The ZLP candidate who spoke through his Media Adviser, Mr Allen Sowore, said, “I am surprised that the Governor could go to the press announcing the sum of N13m as what the Deputy Governor gets as if it was a gift for the personal use and not for the use of his office.
“The Deputy Governor states that what came to his office until Oluwarotimi Akeredolu refused to release same was 12million naira per month.
“This includes the imprest of his office, allowances of staff, fuelling of vehicles, care of his residence and welfare of his aides.
“Huge as the amount may appear, it amounts to not so much when the heads and number of individuals it caters for are considered.
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“The governor gets a security vote of N750million naira every month. He, Akeredolu, also gets an imprest of about N150 million”.
But Akeredolu who would not be outsmarted by Ajayi’s ‘brazen misinformation’, responded through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Segun Ajiboye.
Ajiboye in a statement said, “the disclosure by Mr Governor that the governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party(ZLP) receives a monthly running grant of N13 million appears to have further emitted the entrenched character of the man in question, Agboola Ajayi.
“True to type, Ajayi has resorted to lies and fabrications that Mr Governor gets a monthly payment of N750m as security vote. This brazen misinformation is not a surprise but a true reflection of the unstable and treacherous content in Ajayi.
“The general public is urged to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act to interrogate both statements by Mr Governor and Ajayi.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the State Bureaucracy which process such payments is very available to confirm the veracity or frivolity of either of the statements.
“The October 10 governorship election is between integrity and the absence of it.
“The patent greed which has provided motivation for the treachery and perfidy of Ajayi appears to have created further paths of dishonesty to oil his political misadventure. Succinctly, he is misled my his mind of greed.
“By his antecedents, Agboola Ajayi would have wittingly provided evidence of the payment of such huge amount even before now if it was true.”
The election in Ondo State slated for October 10 has become a 3-horse race with the deputy governor, Hon Agboola Ajayi falling out with his boss, Governor Akeredolu and going ahead to contest for the Governor’s seat, which Akeredolu is also seeking for
in a re-election.
Ajayi who is backed by the immediate past Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, the ZLP national leader, has been using all arsenal to discredit Akeredolu during his campaign tours.
He had accused the Governor’s wife, Mrs Betty Anyawu-Akeredolu of controlling her husband in major decision making policies in the Ondo State Government.
Ajayi’s chances seem bright based on zoning even as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
candidate, Mr Eyitayo Jegede is also aiming for the elective post.
