Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu’ of Ondo
Group seeks probe of Mimiko
Hoodlums, suspected to be supporters of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, attacked the convoy of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu at Oba-Akoko in Akoko South West Local Council of Ondo State.
However, the PDP said it was the APC that violated electoral guidelines to attack its members when the governor and his party were supposed to be campaigning elsewhere.
According to sources, who spoke with The -, the suspected political thugs were alleged to be loyalists of the PDP governorship candidate, Eyitayo Jegede.
They said that APC train was on the way to Ikare-Akoko in continuation of the campaign rally when the thugs attacked the convoy. They said the driver of the vehicle sustained bodily injury and is now receiving treatment at a government hospital.
The spokesperson of Akeredolu/Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation, Olabode Olatunde, lamented that PDP had been launching attacks on the ruling party.
Olatunde affirmed that it was PDP-sponsored thugs that unleashed attacks on the governor’s campaign train in the North Senatorial District of the state.
But Jegede, at a press conference in Akure, said the APC only pre-empted the outcry to absolve itself of blame. He said there was assassination attempt on his life by thugs suspected to belong to APC.
MEANWHILE, a group, Congress for Rights of Ondo Southern Nationalities (CROSN), has urged probe into the administration of former Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, alleging he intentionally abandoning the area.
It also demanded what he did with funds diverted from the completion of the various capital projects across Ondo began by the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu and management of funds that accrued to the Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC).
In a statement by its National Chairman, Abiodun Fanoro, after a meeting in the state capital, Akure, the group said going by the huge number of projects involved and over N100 billion amount that went down the drain, the immediate past government must be made accountable.
According to him, the alarm by incumbent governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, would be meaningless just as justice would not have been served if Mimiko is not probed and made to account for what he did with the funds.
However, CROSN lauded the courage of Governor Akeredolu, “who after initial hobnobbing with Mimiko, recently broke his long silence when he spoke the bitter truth that his friend abandoned the vast projects started by Agagu.”
This came a day after the seventh year anniversary to mark the demise of Agagu.The group noted that going by the vast nature of the projects and how they would have turned around the fortunes of the people and the economy of the state, it was an understatement to describe what Mimiko did as “abandoning projects” and that the appropriate way to describe it is “how Mimiko under-developed Ondo State, especially Ondo Southern Senatorial District.”
Among these projects, which numbered over 30, were the multi-billion naira Akure water project meant to serve about six local councils, the multi billion naira Akure Sports Complex, the multi-billion dollars Olokola Export Processing project, with all its link projects designed to service the main project, several abandoned bridges aimed at opening up the riverine area of the state and provide unhindered access to Olokola.
He also listed the Okitipupa multi-million-naira cassava factory aimed at providing jobs for over 2,000 people, lamenting that Mimiko did not also spare the road project to link Ode-Aye with Igbotako.
Fanoro explained that the project road project whose only bridge had got to 70 per cent completion level, the Oloto-Igbo-Egunren Bridge, meant to link two local councils, also suffered similar fate.
The group stressed that during the eight years administration of Mimiko, no town or village, including Okitipupa, Irele, Ilutitun, Igbotako, Ode-Aye and others in the four local councils of Ondo South, used electricity despite the fact that Omotoso Power Plant is located in the area.
