The Aketi Support Group, a rainbow coalition of interest groups working for Rotimi Akeredolu’s election, has warned Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State against the alleged disbursement of N10 billion to help the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, Olusola Oke, in the September 26 governorship election in Ondo State.
The group said Ondo State people would resist any attempt to influence the election of a governor that would become “an agent of political merchants who would impose heavy debts repayment burden on the people of Ondo State”.
In a statement by its Coordinator, Femi Awogbemi, in Akure, the Ondo State capital, the group said it was in possession of incontrovertible fact that N10 billion of Lagos State tax-payers’ money was being invested in Oke to win the election.
According to the group, the cash was allegedly shared among Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Oke to prosecute the election.
The statement alleged that in the sharing formula, Aregbesola got N5 billion, Fayose received N2 billion, while N3 billion was disbursed to Oke to finance his election.
The group vowed to resist any attempt to make Ondo State a trading post, warning that as the people resisted Lagos to impose its will on the people in 2012 election, they would also demonstrate the same courage again to secure their independence and freedom from local colonisers.
The statement by the group said: “We are aware of the Monday transportation of thousands of Osun and Lagos supporters to Akure to deceive the people that Oke had large numbers of supporters at his campaign rally.
“Osun and Lagos money is being spent on these activities, which explained why a youth group in Osun State two days ago protested in a press statement warning Aregbesola against spending their money on Ondo State election while owing workers several months of unpaid salaries.
“We hereby alert our people that the money from Lagos and Osun is not free; it is a mortgage of Ondo people’s future, and we urge our people to resist it now before they bite their fingers while making repayments to Oke’s financiers.
“Already, we have information that Oke has ceded Finance, Works and Board of Internal Revenue portfolios in his proposed cabinet to the Lagos and Osun axis of his financiers if he wins while revenue collection and administration has reportedly gone to a company called Alpha Beta, a tax collection company also based in Lagos and allegedly owned by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
Other positions reportedly ceded to Oke’s sponsors, according to the statement, include the Secretary to the State Government, chairmanship of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Health and six caretaker committee chairmanship positions at two per senatorial district, as well as four special advisers.
The group warned Oke against acting as an agent of colonisation, stressing that spending a whopping N10 billion on an election could not have been for nothing other than expansionist agenda in Ondo State for selfish reasons, while Lagos taxpayers suffered the consequences of over-ambition.
It added: “The good people of Lagos State are hereby put on notice that their treasury is gradually being depleted to fund the election of Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy in Ondo State.
“We urge the good people of Ondo State to collect the money from Lagos but vote the candidate of the APC, Rotimi Akeredolu, who is not a surrogate of Lagos and who will represent their interest well.
“We also call on our people to reject any attempt to make Ondo a vassal state under the bondage of ambitious slave drivers where Oke will play a good boy to local colonisers.”
Ondo not for sale, Aketi group warns Ambode ahead of governorship poll
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