Impeachment: Akeredolu should remove saboteurs not deputy

A legal practitioner, Mr Allen Sowore, has condemned the alleged plan to remove the deputy governor by the Ondo State House, describing the allegation against Lucky Aiyedatiwa as bogus.

The House, during its plenary, alleged that Aiyedatiwa was involved in gross misconduct while in the office as an acting governor. It wrote a letter to the deputy governor, to respond to the allegation within seven days. This indicated the beginning of an impeachment of the deputy governor.

Sowore in a statement, on Saturday, said instead of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and the House removing the deputy governor, they should have dealt with saboteurs in the government.

The statement read, “I had expected Governor Akeredolu to reprimand those government officials caught in acts of insubordination—those who sabotaged governance in his absence. I mean those who made it impossible for Lucky Aiyedatiwa to assume full control of the government as Acting Governor while the governor was away attending to his health in Germany.

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“Instead, upon his return from his medical leave abroad, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN CON sacked all the media aides of his Deputy. I am sure if the governor had the constitutional power to sack his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, he would have done so the same day he relieved his media aides of their appointments. Apparently, the undisclosed offence of Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa is his attempt to assume office as acting governor, which the cabal never wanted.

“One is, therefore, not surprised by this clandestine move by the Ondo State House of Assembly, alleging bogus charges against the deputy governor—it’s merely calling the dog a bad name in order to hang it. It’s a subterfuge of the cabal to avenge the deputy governor’s attempt to govern while the governor was away, as they benefit immensely from foisting upon the people a state of rudderlessness.”

The statement added, ”  It is now clear in Ondo state that the problem is not with the individuals who served or are serving as deputy governor under Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu The real problem is Governor Akeredolu’s high-handedness and tyrannical approach to governance.

“Both Agboola Ajayi, who served as deputy governor between 2017 to 2021, and the present deputy governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, are respected, genuine men who have established excellent records of public service.

“It is unfair, unconstitutional, illegal, and lugubrious for Governor Akeredolu to allow himself to be taken hostage by members of the cabal and govern Ondo state with invisible hands from his private residence in Ibadan, leaving the state practically ungoverned. It’s unfair of Akeredolu to always maltreat his deputy for daring to act as governor whenever he’s not available to govern.”