The Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa has declared his intention to contest the governorship election coming up in November 2024.
The governor also denied having a crisis with the late Rotimi Akeredolu, the former state governor, before his demise adding that it was a few individuals in the state who were being driven by their ambition that caused the crisis in the state last year.
Aiyedatiwa became the governor of the state, in December 2023, after the death of the former governor who passed away during a protracted illness in Germany and had been buried in Owo, his country home on Friday.
As the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress is scheduled to take place in April this year, the incumbent governor who spoke on a television programme on Friday evening said he wished to contest and win the primary of the party.
He said, “Definitely, I will be running because I am already a sitting governor, and let me say this nobody wants to be governor for one year. Give me what the constitution allows me to do, at least let me have a chance also running for one more term as it were.”
“Let me put this straight for the record sake, I never had issues with the former principal, there was no time we had a face-off, there was no time we had an issue that will demand that I have to make up with him.
“All that was being pushed out at a time were political, there were all falsehoods and insinuations because an election was coming and they knew the governor was so sick and a lot of things were at play. There was no time, I had an issue that I needed to resolve with him, in terms of crisis.”
Regarding the open letter written by five members of the House of Representatives from the state to President Bola Tinubu, Aiyedatiwa said, “One of them is an aspirant, what do you expect from an aspirant? He wants to say something to de-market somebody who has a great advantage; one other one is a director general of a campaign to an aspirant.
“So, all of them have their ambition who they want to be governor. That is an unprogressive position and the party has responded that there was no crisis in the party that they are not at loggerheads with me.”
