Insinuations that there is a supposed rift between Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, have been rubbished by the Governor’s camp.
In a statement issued on behalf of Governor Aiyedatiwa by his Special Assistant on Political Matters, Smart Omodunbi, the governor dismissed the reconciliation narrative by some APC Elders as pure fiction.
According to Omodunbi, there is no quarrel between the Governor and the Minister that warrants mediation.
He stressed that the duo enjoys a cordial relationship anchored on mutual respect and service delivery.
“It is nothing but shadow-chasing. The Governor has a state to run, the Minister has a national duty to perform. Neither has time for manufactured conflicts,” Omodunbi said.
The rebuttal came just hours after the Ondo Mandate Elders Forum, led by Chief Erastus Akeju, held a meeting in Akure where they announced plans to summon both men for peace talks.
At the gathering, which drew party leaders and former political appointees, the elders resolved to “intervene before matters degenerate into crisis.”
Chief Demola Ijabiyi, who facilitated the meeting, told journalists that Aiyedatiwa and Tunji-Ojo were both too important to the state to be allowed to drift apart.
“We will call them and insist on peace. Our role as elders is to calm nerves and ensure unity,” Ijabiyi said, adding that the Forum would also serve as a strong support base for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election.
The elders pledged to mobilize votes massively for Tinubu in future elections, boasting that Ondo could deliver more than one million votes.
But in the Governor’s camp, the story is different. They maintain that the so-called quarrel is an invention of desperate political actors looking to stir division where none exists.
As Omodunbi put it, “There is no war, no fight, and no need for reconciliation. What exists is collaboration, not confrontation.”
