SAHARA REPORTERS
The candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 presidential election, Omoyele Sowore, has asked ailing Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to resume work or leave office.
The activist noted that Akeredolu is incapacitated to continue in office as the governor due to his ill health.
Sowore, who said this on Monday in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle, noted that it is honourable for Governor Akeredolu to leave than to desperately cling to power despite his ill health.
Since his return to Nigeria from a three-month medical leave in Germany, Akeredolu has holed up in his residence in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Governor Akeredolu returned to the country in September where he was treating leukaemia, as exclusively reported by SaharaReporters.
However, there have been criticisms from opposition parties, some civil society groups and individuals over the governor’s failure to resume work at his office in the Government House in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
On Monday, Sowore wrote, “Ondo State Gov. @RotimiAkeredolu is apparently incapacitated due to health issues. It is inconceivable to cling to office!
“Ondo State Gov. @RotimiAkeredolu should resume now or resign honorably due to his incapacitation.”
Ondo State Gov. @RotimiAkeredolu should resume now or resign honorably due to his incapacitation. pic.twitter.com/HsCQSraJ57
— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) November 6, 2023
SaharaReporters on Friday reported that the leadership and members of the Ondo Redemption Front (ORF) called on President Bola Tinubu, to use his office to ascertain Governor Akeredolu’s true state of health as it had been shrouded in secrecy over the months.
ORF urged President Tinubu, as the leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which is Akeredolu’s political party, to tell the governor to resume office if he is fit as acclaimed and provide the needed leadership for the people of the state or resign and take time to attend to his health.
In October, Doyin Odebowale, the Special Adviser on Special Duty and Strategy to Governor Akeredolu, said his principal was working from Ibadan and not Akure in Ondo State due to accommodation challenges.
While featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Odebowale said the lodge where the governor used to stay in Akure was no longer good enough for him considering his state of health.
He lamented the public criticism that had surrounded the governor’s absence in the state, saying Akeredolu was “surrounded by enemies from within”.
According to the governor’s aide, this includes “his family”.
He said, “Aketi came back in September. Where he used to stay – the Presidential Lodge built for the visiting president at that time of (President) Olusegun Obasanjo – is a two-bedroom apartment.
“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 ODIPA. 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.”
According to him, Akeredolu’s absence from Ondo has not affected governance in the state.
“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?
“The civil servants have been paid all their salaries. Aketi has been signing laws since he came back,” he said.
