…..PDP guber Candidate demands out-of-court settlement to pacify plaintiffs.
By: Our Reporter
A former Deputy Governor of Ondo State and governorship candidate of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) for the November 16, 2024 gubernatorial election, Hon. Agboola Ajayi has declared that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, should have resolved the issues and agitations on the creation of the 33 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state without allowing it to degenerate to a litigation.
Ajayi blamed Aiyedatiwa for the eventual nullification of the LCDAs by the state court.
He stated this on Monday in Akure, the state capital, while reacting to the court verdict and comment of a group against him.
The deputy of the late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu in his first term in office, said Governor Aiyedatiwa should have intervened and addressed the grievances of the plaintiffs (Akoko people) out of court.
He noted that Aiyedatiwa should have invited the communities that were aggrieved about the creation of the LCDAs and created additional LCDAs to balance the distribution to a reasonable extent rather waiting for the court to nullify the creation.
He, said the people and the state lost all the resources they invested in the creation of the LCDAs, saying, “I have read a lot of comments and received many calls especially from the northern part of the state.
“I think I must make myself clear so that the people can understand what I meant in my earlier interview.
“First, let me make it clear. I still maintain what I said by blaming Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa on whatever happened on the creation of LCDAS and the aftermath.
“I said I blamed governor Aiyedatiwa for the judgement and for the aftermath of that creation of LCDAS and I will explain to you.
“Government is a serious business. Once you inherit asset of a government, you must also inherit the liability or whatever things that come with it.
“Yes, I don’t need to hide my feelings because I was a former local government chairman, former supervising counsellor of a local government, a former supervising counsellor for works, agriculture and served chairman caretaker committee as well as elected chairman for three years. So, if you put all these together, my experience is about eight years.
“Not only that, when I was the deputy governor, I supervised local government chairmen. So, you should know that I have more experience than Aiyedatiwa in that regard.
“I also appreciate and understand what the local government administration can do for the people at the rural areas. So, we must take local government administration very seriously as the closest government to the people and we must nurture it.
“If we take a look at the news and the zeal that came with that creation that time, it is not a thing we should just throw into the bin.
“We can’t have a perfect system in everything, knowing fully well that when that LCDAS were created, the governor(the late Oluwarotimi Akeredolu) was abroad on a medical leave. There are tendencies that one of two persons may want to take advantage of that, to favour others. Those who protested have the right to do so.
“These are normal legitimate protests which every tribe must do, but it is now the duty of the government to settle those grievances amicably,” Ajayi said.
But reacting, the Lucky Aiyedatiwa Campaign Organisation Foot Soldiers Independent Council (LACO-FSIC) in a statement by its State Director of Information, Mr. Kayode Fasua, said “as for us in the All Progressives Congress, under the leadership of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, we have been preaching peace and our supporters have keyed in, and this is expected from our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ in other political parties.”
