ONDO: Avoid embarrassment, return govt’s vehicles, Akeredolu tells Ajayi, others

GOVERNOR Rotimi Akeredolu has asked his erstwhile deputy, Agboola Ajayi, and other political office holders to return the state’s property in their possession.

Akeredolu specifically warned Ajayi to avoid embarrassment by returning the four official vehicles attached to his office within the next few days or face the consequences.

The governor said he would not hesitate to send security agencies after all former political appointees, including Ajayi, who refused to return government properties.

Akeredolu, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Special Duties and Strategy, Dr Doyin Odebowale, said he did not buy any new vehicles after he was sworn in, condemning the practice by elected officials or political appointees to take government properties away when leaving office.

He said, “He has no right to steal if we want to use the proper name. Why does the former deputy governor think he merits those vehicles and others do not?

“Those vehicles are public property. We have to stop this impunity. It is not only the deputy governor alone but all other political appointees. This madness must stop.

“So they want to take the vehicles away and then we will use the taxpayers money to buy new ones. There are many of them yet to return vehicles. Some have returned but others are still feigning they thought they will be reappointed.

“We are waiting for the Police to act on the petition. We will press charges against them. Agboola no longer enjoys immunity, we will press charges against him. He should return those vehicles. Are we now going to buy new vehicles for the new Deputy Governor?

“All these things are pure stealing. We have to challenge these people. If Agboola refuses to comply we will press charges. At the end of Akeredolu’s first term, we sent letters to all political appointees to return government properties because nobody was sure of coming back.

“We are going to unleash security agencies on all of them. They made calls to Agboola and he promised to comply but later he started barring their calls. This is not decency and politics. Let Agboola return the vehicles or we will embarrass him thoroughly.”

Meanwhile, the Ondo State Police Commissioner, Salami Bolaji, has confirmed receipt of the petition sent to the command by the state governor.

Salami who spoke through the Ondo Police spokesman, Tee-Leo Ikoro, said he has directed an investigation into the petition.

Akeredolu and Ajayi were at loggerheads in the twilight of the governor’s first term in office.

Ajayi eventually defected to the People’s Democratic Party to pursue his ambition of becoming the state’s governor.

He, however, refused to resign his position as Ondo State deputy governor, saying those that voted him into the position did not ask him to leave.

Ajayi’s stance worsened the frosty relationship between him and Akeredolu. He would later fail to realise his ambition in the PDP when he was defeated by Eyitayo Jegede who eventually became the party’s standard-bearer in the 2020 governorship election.

The situation turned Ajayi into a political bird of passage as he defected again to the former governor Segun Mimiko’s Zenith Labour payment, where he was given the governorship ticket unchallenged.

He would later come distant third, behind Eyitayo, in the governorship election as Akeredolu secured a landslide victory.