Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has said that he was confident that President Muhammadu Buhari would win the 2019 presidential election for a second term in the office.
Akeredolu told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Atlanta, U.S. that Buhari had done well and deserved to be re-elected, in spite of obvious challenges.
“I followed the achievements he (Buhari) has had within this four short years but he’s not someone that is given to making noise.
“A lot has changed in our country and there’s need for continuity; no doubt, we have had our challenges.
“No doubt, at the tail end, a number of challenges came about on security.
“But that notwithstanding, to get us out of recession within a short time is not a mean feat; people don’t just appreciate it.
“To now talk about a number of other things; when you talk about light, where you have light, is anybody talking about it?
“To talk about what we have been able to save in terms of cutting corruption, so many lives are affected by that.
“So, I believe that within this short four years, President Buhari has done a lot,’’ the governor told NAN.
He urged Nigerians to re-elect the president for another term to stabilize the economy and block leakages.
According to him, re-electing another person might lead to the reversal of what the president has done in the last three years.
He said:
“Let him (Buhari) continue and probably stabilize the economy more, and at least, block a few areas of leakages when it comes to corruption in this country.
“Let him block it totally and make sure that we are on a sound footing to now move.
“Somebody else can come but it’s not like now.
“So for us, who are supporting him, we believe that in the interest of stability, continuity and for the progress of the nation, we need President Buhari to have another four years and then we can move ahead’’.
On the implications of the crisis rocking the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) leading to the gale of defections by some National Assembly members and Benue Gov. Samuel Ortom, Akeredolu said there was no cause for alarm.
According to him, the defections were not because the politicians had any problem with Buhari but due to problems related to states.
“President Buhari will win the election, let us leave what is happening here and there; he has captured it very well.
“Look at the issue of the gale of defection that people are doing, he said most of them are not because of him, which is true.
“We have States in which people have created problems and these problems now cascaded into the national level.
“So, in that circumstance at the end of the day, when elections are held, President Buhari will win.
“I am sure by the grace of God, we will win the election.
“The only thing is that I don’t know about senators, I can’t talk about governors or some of the elections in the states.
“But if it’s the election for the president, President Muhammadu Buhari, by the grace of God, will win. His chances are very bright,’’ Akeredolu said.
The Ondo State Government has disclosed that the home-grown school feeding programme organised for primary school pupils has resumed after weeks of suspension.
Special Adviser to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on Public and Intergovernmental Relations, Mrs. Olubunmi Ademosu, who dropped the hint during a chat with newsmen, in Akure, said the scheme was suspended due to some logistic reasons.
She hinted that the programme was carefully designed in a way that resources allocated for its success are not diverted, hence the direct crediting of the accounts of the over 1,000 cooks engaged for the programme.
Mrs. Odumosu, whose office coordinates the school feeding programme said over 78,000 pupils were already being fed in the state with the target to touch over 100,000 pupils across the three senatorial districts before the end of the year.
She added that the agency discovered that about 95 percent of pupils in Akoko area of the state were not benefitting from the programme when it took off in the state, adding that the state government does not politicise the programme.
She assured that the teething challenges being witnessed are already being rectified as a team of government officials are already working with the monitoring agency in Abuja to improve on the programme.
The Special Adviser noted that “Over 80 percent of the vendors have now complied fully and their details uploaded now.The slight hitch is not only peculiar to Ondo State but other states.”
She reiterated that the laudable federal government social intervention programme has been ably supported with all the necessary human capital and logistics requirement by Governor Akeredolu for the overall benefit of all and sundry.
Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) has urged the people of Ondo State to be patient with his government. He said he would not receive any salary until the workers in the state are paid all the salary arrears inherited from his predecessor.
He, therefore, urged them, especially the health workers, to suspend their strike and be committed to duty so as to move the state forward. The governor, who said this yesterday at the Governor’s Office in Alagbaka, Akure, when he resumed office and met with civil servants, stressed that he was one of them and preferred to be addressed as a governor and not “executive governor.”
“For as long as you have not been paid your salaries for that long, your governor too cannot be paid his salary. A governor should not earn salaries when others are owed salaries,” he said.
He said he would operate an open government by setting up a committee that will include the accountant-general and few others to address the backlog of workers’ salaries. He assured them that he would soon settle down for a round-able dialogue with them.
Besides, he refuted the publications in the national dailies (not The Guardian) that he appealed in a court of higher jurisdiction for the dissolution of local council elections conducted last year across the 18 local councils of the state by his predecessor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.
Counsel to the governor, Mr. Charles Titiloye, at the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure yesterday said his client was unaware of any suit on the dissolution of the 18 local government councils in the state.
The governor had purportedly appealed a judgment delivered by Justice Olasehinde Kumuyi of the state High Court in January 2017, restraining him from removing the council bosses from office. But Titiloye told the appellate court that his client, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu was embarrassed by the reports.
He said the governor was neither aware of both the order of the High Court restraining him from dissolving the councils nor the appeal supposedly filed by him.
Akeredolu, who urged people to always say the truth, admitted that no human being is perfect. He enjoined the people to “be critical of your governor, be critical about our government but be constructive in your criticisms. We will run an open government.”
In another development, no fewer than five persons have been reported killed in Ondo town over All Progressives Congress (APC) intra-party crisis.
The Guardian gathered that the gruesome murder of the deceased was a reprisal attack by a rival cult group in the town over the killing of its members last Friday after the swearing-in ceremony of Akeredolu.
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