By: Oladimeji Abitogun
Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, has brokered a peace meeting between the Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and his estranged deputy, Mr. Agboola Ajayi.
Sources familiar with initial efforts engineered by Dr. Fayemi revealed that the meeting at which the two feuding associates sat together at Akure on Sunday came as a sign of relief for expectant supporters on the two sides who had thought the face-off might be intractable.
Fayemi, who is also the Governor of the State to the immediate north of Ondo, Ekiti, was said to be acting at the behest of the NGF and at the prompting of some leaders of though in the South-West.
Governor Akeredolu was said to have reduced the public visibility of his official lieutenant since the fight started. Competent observers blamed the vaulting ambition of some politicians in Ondo State for the original spark that brought the cold war which has so far remain bloodless. It is a fight many people consider pointless.
Specifically, a serving member of the State Executive Council, who occupies a strategic office, is being fingered for starting the fight. The Cabinet Member allegedly hatched a plot, a sting operation reminiscent of military coup set-up that generated a bad blood from Akeredolu, popularly known as Aketi, against his number two, whom he fondly called Agbo, a well known Yoruba short expression for Agboola.
The said Commissioner was invited into the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party in Ondo State by Agboola Ajayi. The same protégé of the Deputy-Governor was said to have embarked on the project of taking a midget recording device in inner pocket for the purpose of reporting every “parlour talks” which in turn was always taken to the Governor to sour his good thought towards Agboola Ajayi. It was an archetypal treacherous act copied straight from the script of Judas Iscariot.
Sharpedgenews got a snippet of some of the “parlour talks” that got Agboola Ajayi into trouble. For example, he was said to have complained that party faithfuls and citizens of the State were not usually favoured in contract awards. Most contracts often go to the kinsmen of the Governor from Owo and to South-Easterners who enjoyed the favour of Mrs. Betty Anyawu-Akeredolu, wife of the Governor.
Other “parlour talks” touched on major renovations at Government offices. The fact that Arakunrin Akeredolu often approved facelift for offices occupied by Owo indigenes further fuelled nepotic accusations. Indeed, he was accused of behaving like the “Chairman of Owo Local Government” instead of running office as an elected Governor and protector of the entire State. Whether by omission or commission, the major reconstruction and refurbishing of the executive offices which make Akeredolu’s office first among equals in Nigeria, flagrantly left the Deputy-Governor’s office out conspicuously.
Also, on the list of issues causing disaffection between the two APC titans is the fact that the Governor allegedly encouraged some aides to spite and act in blatant condescension against the office and the person of the Deputy-Governor.
Contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at Sections 190 and 191 on who acts in lieu of the elected governor, if indisposed or out of State and so on, directives were given to the contrary and all kinds of character and beings started acting on behalf of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, because he had been so worked on to distrust his deputy who should have effortlessly played the role.
In addition, an attempt to lace the absurdity with a tinge of humour and irony led to the removal of Special Assistant on Political Matters, Mr. Augustine Pelemo from Isua-Akoko, who had addressed the wife of Agboola Ajayi as the acting First Lady of the State. As a matter of fact there is no such office. Pelemo was summarily dismissed for indecent joke.
Not less than six individuals from the Ondo Southern Senatorial District, where the embattled Agboola Ajayi hails from, are already jostling for a bite of the action that could produce the next number two. The State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Donald Ojogo is fingered to be interested. The Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Princess Oladunni Odu has her own sponsored crowd hiding under the guise of gender parity to demand a fair consideration of her person for the office. The Director-General of Technical Aid Corps, Dr. Pius Osunyikanmi (a.k.a. DPO), is also in the race. The State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. ‘Wale Akinterinwa is in consideration as well.
If Agboola Ajayi falls and Donald Ojogo rises, the ancient suspicion between Ijaw Apoi and Ijaw Arogbo could again boil over, thus starting an avoidable bloody civil war in Ondo State. Such fears may be in the minds of the cross section of leaders who advised Governor Fayemi to act last Sunday when he came to Akure in order to plead with the two political warlords to think less of themselves, but the overall interest of Yoruba nation and Nigeria at large. The peace talks were completely shielded from the Press.
Sharpedgenews exclusively gathered that both Akeredolu and Ajayi assured Fayemi that the swords would be in sheath as a mark of respect for the mood of the nation in terms of the fatalities being recorded concerning the global COVID 19 pandemic, recognition of the sacrifice and efforts of the neighbouring Governor and to extinguish doubts and miss-interpretations that Ondo State may be eternally jinxed in terms of recurrent bouts between holders of the two highest offices in the State: First, it was Adekunle Ajasin versus Akin Omoboriowo in 1982/83; Olusegun Mimiko versus Alli Olanusi (2012/13) and now it is Oluwarotimi Akeredolu against Agboola Ajayi in the cage. The informed leaders do not want either side to the struggle to be bloodied.
Both Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo and the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Segun Ajiboye, declined comments.