Ibadan more conducive than Ondo govt house for Akeredolu to work from, says aide
Doyin Odebowale, senior special assistant on special duties to Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has said that his boss has been working from Ibadan, the capital of Oyo, because it is more conducive than the government house in Akure.
Odebowale, who made this statement on Politics Today, a Channels TV programme, on Tuesday, said the governor’s health condition requires him to stay in a place that has all the facilities for his recovery.
He said the governor returned from Germany in early September after a three-month medical trip and has not moved back to his state.
He said the governor’s accommodation in Ondo was a two-bedroom apartment that was built for the visiting president at that time Olusegun Obasanjo.
He said the old governor’s office and lodge in Ondo have been turned into the office of the investment outlet called the Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA).
He said the new place that is being prepared for the governor in Ondo is almost ready.
He said the governor has been fulfilling his duties as the governor by paying civil servants’ salaries and signing laws.
He criticised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party in Ondo, which has demanded the governor’s resignation if he cannot resume his duties in Ondo.
“Aketi came back in September. Where he used to stay – the presidential lodge built for the visiting president at that time Olusegun Obasanjo — is a two-bedroom apartment,” he said.
“Now, he is back. He cannot occupy that place again. The old governor’s office, the governor’s lodge built by the previous administration is now the office of the investment outlet called the ONDIPA. That’s the office.
“So, the governor has been managing a two-bedroom apartment for six years. But his current state of health would not permit him to pretend that all is well.
“He would need all the things for him to recover properly. That’s why the new place that is being arranged for him is almost completed.”
“When they say they want to see Aketi, do they want to see him at the site so that he would be carrying cement or following workmen? What exactly?,” he said.
“The civil servants have been paid all their salaries. Aketi has been signing laws since he came back.
“PDP cannot ask the governor to show his face and if the so-called youths of the PDP believed that they reserve the right to move to the street to protest against a ruling party, APC and you want to know where the governor is, for what?”
He said the governor is still in charge of the state and is “recuperating and convalescing”.
He said the governor will return to Ondo when it is appropriate.
