The Ondo State government and a group within the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Ondo State Redemption Initiative (OSRI) have disagreed over the allegation that Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa is using the State resources to fund his governorship ambition.
While OSRI said the governor has planned to use the resources of the State to procure endorsement of State lawmakers in Abuja’s secretariat of the APC, the government described the allegation as balderdash and not worthy of its reaction.
The group through its President, Pastor Adebayo Ogunsanmi, Secretary, Jide Oriola, and Publicity Secretary, Sunday Ayeni accused the Aiyedatiwa of setting aside $180 million to bribe lawmakers for phantom endorsement.
The group said it would be wrong for a Governor to use the State’s resources for selfish political ambition when majority of citizens are wallowing in abject poverty.
The group, in a statement, titled ‘Aiyedatiwa offers lawmakers $10.000 dollars per lawmaker for Abuja endorsement’, said Aiyedatiwa has taken his desperation to another level by using dollars to bribe lawmakers for endorsement.
The group said the previous endorsement has been denied and warned the governor against using the State’s resources meant for Infrastructural development to bribe lawmakers who have lost relevance in their constituency.
The OSRI said “Desperate effort by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo state to offer 10,000 dollars to each member of the state assembly for endorsement has been exposed.
“The plot, according to inside sources, will involve a trip by 18 lawmakers from the state to accompany the governor to the national headquarters of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during which they will stage the endorsement.
“Aiyedatiwa is desperately going round for endorsements. The latest is a plan to get at least 18 lawmakers out of the 26 from the state to accompany him to the national headquarters of the APC in Abuja where they will endorse him.
“By calculation, that would amount to 260, 000 dollars that Aiyedatiwa is willing to spend to get the state lawmakers to endorse him.
“But since he knew that he could not get the 18 members to do the dirty job, he has offered each member 18,000 dollars, believing that the money would be too tempting to reject.”
However, the government in its reaction through Special Assistant to Aiyedatiwa on New Media, Mr Sunday Abire, described the allegation as hogwash.
Abire said “Why will the Governor bribe the Ondo State House of Assembly in the first? The same Governor that has been accused by politicians of not being a spendthrift? Which should we hold dearly now? It is the season of mischief and the Governor is too focused to be distracted.”
