Akeredolu Denies Having Links With Violence In Ekiti State

Ondo State Government Reacts To Fayose’s Allegations

The Ondo State government yesterday has reacted to the statement reportedly made by the Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose through his media aide, Lere Olayinka, pointing some accusation at its governor, Rotimi Akeredolu.

According to a statement by the Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Yemi Olowolabi, “ordinarily, we would have ignored all the deliberate lies and falsehood, but we felt that we would not be the public, if such lies were not debunked.

“For the information of the doubters, Governor Akeredolu, even if provoked, cannot debase his personality to a level that he will sacrifice the interests of his people for pecuniary gains.

“Instead of engaging in hypocritical activities, like eating at motor parks and cutting ponmo (cow hide delicacy) at the market square, Akeredolu is currently applying the public resources for the betterment of the lives of the people of the state.

While the statements reiterated some of the governor Akeredolu’s  programme in the state, it said, “Governor Fayose and his boy should be reminded that the Akeredolu-led administration has performed creditably well in the last one year and few months.

Governor Fayose had accused the Governor Akeredolu of planning to use the State’s two months allocation to fund the electioneering of the APC governorship candidate in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

Fayose had also accused Akeredolu of bringing 150 policemen to Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, last Friday, to instigate the gun attack in which four persons, including an  APC chieftain, Opeyemi Bamidele, were injured.

Reacting to this statements, The Ondo Government said,

“On last Friday’s gun attack in Ekiti, we would like to refer Fayose to a statement by the Ekiti State police spokesperson Caleb Okechukwu, who cleared the air on the issue. Investigation by the police had revealed that the shooter was a police officer brought from Lagos by an Ekiti politician.

“For this revelation, we believe that the Ekiti governor and his cohorts will now bury their heads in shame.

“We, therefore, call the security agencies in the country to take note of the false accusation levelled against Akeredolu by Fayose and his town crier, who, only a few years ago, wrote a detailed report about the devious activities of his master.

“It is also important for Lere and his boss to know one very important fact that unlike his boss, we are committed to the progress and peaceful co-existence between the state and Ekiti. I mean, weren’t we one before October, 1996? The seed of discord Fayose is trying to plant between the two states will not germinate, no matter how cunning he is.

“We will love to state here categorically that Governor Akeredolu reserves every right to show support for the candidate of his party in Ekiti State, just as Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and the rest are showing support for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

“There is no law that prohibits Fayose and the PDP from making issues out of this because of the smell of defeat that has overwhelmed them.

“Fayose also tried to rewrite the sad incident that occurred last Friday, claiming that the tear gas canisters that hit a taxi driver was fired by the policemen that accompanied the thugs from Akure.

“Residents of Ekiti and those who were present during the incident knew that the pandemonium that greeted the shooting at the APC secretariat necessitated the tear gas canisters fired by the policemen.

The statement also stressed that that the policemen who fired the tear gas canisters were properly  deployed to the secretariat by the Ekiti State Police Command to forestall anomalies.