Senior special assistant on special duties and strategy to Ondo State governor, Dr. Doyin Odebowale, has asked the state’s deputy governor, Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa to defend himself before the state House of Assembly rather than begging Governor Oluwarotim Akeredolu for forgiveness.
Odebowale, in a statement issued and made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday in Akure, the state capital, said: “Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu does not meddle in the affairs of the House of Assembly of Ondo State.”
Aiyedatiwa had yesterday tendered an apology to his principal, Governor Akeredolu, saying: “I am deeply saddened by the embarrassment and discomfort that Mr. Governor has faced due to the barrage of negative news in the state as a result of the events of the last few months.”
Reacting to Aiyedatiwa’s statement, Odebowale said there was never a time the governor persuaded members of Ondo State House of Assembly to embrace the political solution offered by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the face of an impeachment move against the deputy governor.
“It is interesting to read that the deputy governor also distanced himself from all groups and platforms notorious for maligning the governor, members of his family, and all those perceived as his close allies and supporters, in recent times.
“More instructive is the unfortunate reference made to “a series of events triggered by the health challenges faced by Mr Governor which gave rise to misunderstandings, misconceptions, assumptions, and insinuations, and exploited by political contenders preparing for the upcoming 2024 gubernatorial election.
“The major sponsors of these acts of subterfuge should be ashamed of themselves. The very suggestion that these brazen and shameless acts of moral turpitude happened without the knowledge of the projected, most prominent beneficiary and active enabler of this disgrace should make sense to those who toed this path of infamy,” he said.
“The deputy governor referred to the allegations of malfeasance leveled against him by the House of Assembly as “all sorts of lies against my person in the media”. It is only decent that we advise him to take this defence to the same House of Assembly which came up with 14 allegations of gross misconduct against him,” he said.
