Aketi Support Group, a coalition of groups in favour of Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forth-coming election in Ondo state, has warned Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos state to desist from an alleged disbursement of N10 billion to help the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD), Olusola Oke. Oke is speculated to be supported by Asiwaju Tinubu and reportedly has the endorsement of aggrieved members of the APC who do not believe in Akeredolu.
Tinubu and Akeredolu
The group warned that the people of Ondo state would resist any attempt to influence the election Oke who it says would become an agent of “political merchants who would impose heavy debts repayment burden on the people.”
The coordinator of the coalition, Femi Awogbemi, in a statement in Akure, the state capital, said it had an incontrovertible evidence that Ambode was investing N10 billion of tax-payers’ money on Oke.
Leadership quotes the group as alleging that the money was shared among Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun state, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state and Oke to prosecute the election.
The statement said Aregbesola got N5 billion, Fayose received N2 billion while Oke got N3 billion to finance his election. The group said: “We are aware of the Monday transportation of thousands of Osun and Lagos supporters to Akure to deceive the people that Oke had large numbers of supporters at his campaign rally.
“Osun and Lagos money is being spent on these activities, which explained why a youth group in Osun State two days ago protested in a press statement warning Aregbesola against spending their money on Ondo State election while owing workers several months of unpaid salaries.
“We hereby alert our people that the money from Lagos and Osun is not free; it is a mortgage of Ondo people’s future, and we urge our people to resist it now before they bite their fingers while making repayments to Oke’s financiers.
“Already, we have information that Oke has ceded Finance, Works and Board of Internal Revenue portfolios in his proposed cabinet to the Lagos and Osun axis of his financiers if he wins while revenue collection and administration has reportedly gone to a company called Alpha Beta, a tax collection company also based in Lagos and allegedly owned by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
The statement said Oke had agreed to cede the position of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), chairmanship of the Ondo state Oil Producing Areas Development Commission ( OSOPADEC) local government and chieftaincy affairs, health, six caretaker committee chairmanship and four special advisers to his sponsors.
The group alleged: “The good people of Lagos state are hereby put on notice that their treasury is gradually being depleted to fund the election of Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy in Ondo state.
“We urge the good people of Ondo state to collect the money from Lagos but vote the candidate of the APC, Rotimi Akeredolu, who is not a surrogate of Lagos and who will represent their interest well.
“We also call on our people to reject any attempt to make Ondo a vassal state under the bondage of ambitious slave drivers where Oke will play a good boy to local colonisers.”
The report said it efforts to speak with the Chief Press Secretary to Ambode, Habib Aruna proved abortive as he did not pick his calls.