Ondo guber: Ayedatiwa extends olive branch to co-aspirants

By Jude Opara, Abuja

The governor of Ondo state and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming November 16 governorship election, Lucky Ayedatiwa has called on his fellow aspirants in the April 20 primary election to join him in the quest to see the party retain leadership position on the state.
Ayedatiwa who spoke in Abuja shortly after collecting his Certificate of Return from the party on Monday said his arms are wise open to accommodate all the stakeholders to make the state the model in development and service delivery.
The governor also gave insight into what he experienced while campaigning for the party’s ticket.
“But the truth is one thing I can remember and won’t forget is the level of support that I got from the people of Ondo state. Not just only members of our party, yes members of the party all came out all across the 203 wards in Ondo state to vote for me.
“But during my tour of the 18 local government the people that received me were more than just members of our party, the entire community I can’t forget that”.
On what is being done to ensure that some aggrieved candidate withdraw their petition, he said; “Let me say this that immediately after the primaries and the return of the winner, there are some of the aspirants that were aggrieved because of their opinion that there were irregularities in some of the wards and these led to the setting up of the appeal committee.
“Petitions was submitted quite alright I think about two or three of them, but we have been talking, consultations have been on, the National Working Committee (NWC) under the leadership of the party invited all of us to plead for peace and cooperation which majority of hem accepted.
“During that very meeting, I can tell you that among the 15 of us present at about 11 at that moment agreed that it is over with, that a winner or a flag bearer has emerged.
“And the other three we have been talking, and we have been relating, and that was what has led to the final report of the Appeal Committee that was submitted and adopted by the National Working Committee. That is to tell you that issues have been resolved, even though consultation continues”.
Commenting on his chances at the main election, Ayedatiwa who sounded very confident said; “Now the other aspect which is the opposition, I can simply tell you that there is no opposition, that is so formidable to upstage us in Ondo state anymore.

“The PDP that we see as opposition is currently weakened because most of their strong or political stalwarts has defected and joined us in APC, a lot of them.

“And also, we know ourselves, don’t forget that the flag bearer of PDP was a former deputy governor to late governor who had succeeded as the deputy governor at that time.

“So we know ourselves, in fact, we are from the same federal constituency, we know what our people want and we know who they prefer APC is a preferred party right now in Ondo state and the signs are there.

“The members of the public, they are giving us our support, and they are the ones that will determine and decide at the end of the day.

“And from what is happening, what we are going to experiencing and the projects and programmes that we have put in place, we know that we have the support the majority of the people obviously, there’s nothing to fear” he concluded.