PRESS STATEMENT.
The Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN while reacting to the Supreme Court Judgement which dismissed the appeal of Eyitayo Jegede, SAN and PDP in a split decision (4-3) in the October, 2020 Governorship had enjoined Jegede to join him to move Ondo State forward. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ondo State Chapter finds this request laughable.
Our party and its candidate cannot be part of a government that has thrown out many students of tertiary institutions in the state because their parents can no longer pay the astronomical school fees charged by the Akeredolu Government.
Our party and its candidate cannot be part of government that has crippled the health care system in the State. We cannot be part of a government that has withdrawn free shuttle buses for school children.
It is unthinkable that Akeredolu can ask our candidate to join a government that has pauperised civil servants in the state through the payments of 30% salaries that are not even regular. Civil servants now have to take loans to be able to pay house rents or send their children to school. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa Chapter has just embarked on an indefinite strike. What has been the government’s response to all these myriad of problems?
It is important to stress that, before the October 2020 election, Eyitayo Jegede, SAN and the PDP drew up a well articulated manifesto on Education, Health Care delivery, Agriculture, Industrialization, Welfare of Civil Servants and much more in contradistinction to what is obtainable now in the state. To this extent, there is no meeting point between what was designed by the PDP and Akeredeolu’s score card.
The Supreme Court verdict has also exposed the impunity which is the trademark and the foundation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its Government at all levels. All the seven Justices of the Supreme Court agreed that, Mai Mala Buni acted in clear violation of Section 183 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria (as Amended). This has become the talking point of the political space since the judgement was delivered. Our jurisprudence on election matters has been enriched and everyone is grateful to Eyitayo Jegede and the PDP for not allowing the APC to drown our democracy in the sea of their impunity.
Our party wishes to advise Akeredolu to channel his energies to improving the welfare of Ondo citizens instead of grandstanding and clicking of wine glasses over the Supreme Court Judgement.
Kennedy Ikantu Peretei
State Publicity Secretary, Ondo PDP.
31st July, 2021.