Meets Buhari In Aso Rock
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu,
The candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, says the party’s national leader Ahmed Bola Tinubu, has accepted the outcome of the primaries that produced him.
Akeredolu said this yesterday after he was formally presented to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
At the governorship primaries conducted in Akure on September 3, Akeredolu defeated Segun Abraham who was believed to have been endorsed by Tinubu.
The APC flag bearer, who was presented to Buhari by Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, told State House reporters that he had no rift with Tinubu.
“Since the primaries, you would see that as a leader of the party, he (Tinubu) has not said anything about it. He has accepted the primaries, and we are moving on. So, I don’t have any rift with him at all and we are moving on,” Akeredolu said.
He alleged that Governor Olusegun Mimiko encouraged lawlessness in the guise of the recent violent protest that trailed the replacement by the Independent National Electoral Commission of Eyitayo Jegede with Jimoh Ibrahim as the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party.
He said: “We’re calling on the security apparatus of the state to be up and doing so that they don’t allow miscreants to take over because, for instance, as a governor, you encourage lawlessness for people in the guise of protest because what the PDP has is a problem within the party.
“That should not lead to demonstration outside and you know that people aren’t demonstrating for any reason, but because they’ve been more or less paid to come and do it. Nobody can control the end of such demonstration. So, it’s not that we are afraid, but we fear for the life and property of the people of Ondo State,” he said.
The APC candidate said he would have been happier to “face both Jegede and Ibrahim as PDP candidate and running mate at the election scheduled for November 26,” saying he would still win.
He said he had no fear about both of them, adding that “we know that we are going to win this election and I have no doubt.”
Governor Lalong said he presented Akeredolu to Buhari to tell him that the APC has only one candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State.
He stated: “A few weeks ago, I was given the responsibility of leading the campaign on behalf of the National Executive for the Ondo election. And the candidate, since the primaries, has not come to be presented to the leader of our party, that is, Mr. President. So, today (Monday), we came in with the candidate and to confirm to the president that APC has only one candidate unlike other parties that are fighting about who is their candidate. We have only one candidate and that candidate is Chief Akeredolu Rotimi (SAN).”