The Ondo State government yesterday faulted the statement credited to Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose through his media aide, Lere Olayinka, castigating Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN).
Fayose had accused Akeredolu of bringing 150 policemen to Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, last Friday, to instigate the gun attack in which four persons, including an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Opeyemi Bamidele, were injured.
He repeated the accusation that Akeredolu planned to use Ondo State’s two months’ allocation to fund the electioneering of the APC governorship candidate in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
A statement by Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Yemi Olowolabi, said: “Ordinarily, we would have ignored all the deliberate lies and falsehood, but we felt that we would not be the public, if such lies were not debunked.
“For the information of the doubters, Governor Akeredolu, even if provoked, cannot debase his personality to a level that he will sacrifice the interests of his people for pecuniary gains.
“Instead of engaging in hypocritical activities, like eating at motor parks and cutting ponmo (cow hide delicacy) at the market square, Akeredolu is currently applying the public resources for the betterment of the lives of the people of the state.
“So, it is interesting to state that Ondo is witnessing massive infrastructural development in all sectors of the state. On Monday, at the State Executive Council (Exco) meeting, a number of projects were approved for execution. That’s how development is moving in Ondo State.
“Governor Fayose and his boy should be reminded that the Akeredolu-led administration has performed creditably well in the last one year and few months.
“On last Friday’s gun attack in Ekiti, we would like to refer Fayose to a statement by the Ekiti State police spokesperson Caleb Okechukwu, who cleared the air on the issue. Investigation by the police had revealed that the shooter was a police officer brought from Lagos by an Ekiti politician.
“For this revelation, we believe that the Ekiti governor and his cohorts will now bury their heads in shame.
“We, therefore, call the security agencies in the country to take note of the false accusation levelled against Akeredolu by Fayose and his town crier, who, only a few years ago, wrote a detailed report about the devious activities of his master.
“It is also important for Lere and his boss to know one very important fact that unlike his boss, we are committed to the progress and peaceful co-existence between the state and Ekiti. I mean, weren’t we one before October, 1996? The seed of discord Fayose is trying to plant between the two states will not germinate, no matter how cunning he is.
“We will love to state here categorically that Governor Akeredolu reserves every right to show support for the candidate of his party in Ekiti State, just as Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and the rest are showing support for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
“There is no law that prohibits Fayose and the PDP from making issues out of this because of the smell of defeat that has overwhelmed them.
“Fayose also tried to rewrite the sad incident that occurred last Friday, claiming that the tear gas canisters that hit a taxi driver was fired by the policemen that accompanied the thugs from Akure.
“Residents of Ekiti and those who were present during the incident knew that the pandemonium that greeted the shooting at the APC secretariat necessitated the tear gas canisters fired by the policemen.
“Please, note that the policemen who fired the tear gas canisters were duly drafted to the secretariat by the Ekiti State Police Command to forestall the breakdown of law and order…”