The lawmaker representing Akoko South East/South West Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Honourable Adejoro Adeogun has bared his mind on the forthcoming governorship elections in Ondo State.
During an exclusive interview with Everyevery.ng, the lawmaker stated that the incumbent Governor and the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is the most experienced out of all the governorship Candidates.
Ondo State is preparing for its governorship elections, what is your take on the possible outcome of the October 10 elections?
I came from Ondo State yesterday and one thing is obvious, the incumbent would win the elections, not just because he has done well, which he has done well, but because the right message has been sent to the people that stability helps to promote development.
Has stability helped Nigeria in any way?
Talking about stability or continuity, let us take Singapore and Rwanda as an example, their President there didn’t serve for eight years, that of Singapore served for twenty-eight years or thereabout, the point is, the longer a President or Governor stays in office, the better they know how to manage the affairs of governance, though they might not be perfect, but they can correct their errors.
I believe the Ondo state governor, Akeredolu, means well. He is not perfect, he may have made mistakes in the past. I believe the forthcoming elections would be an opportunity for him to correct whatever error he has committed and improve on the good things he has done.
Why should Governor Akeredolu wants to come back for second term if he has done his best?
It is important to ask the question about the other options the people have, who are the people contesting against him, are they ready for Governance?
I watch football a lot, one of the reasons why some footballers are put on the bench is that they are considered not good enough at that time, though, the people who are running against Akeredolu are eminent personalities, but the question is, do they have the experience?
Unfortunately, governance is not a place where you learn the rope, if someone has learned the rope, let him use the experience he has gained when he was learning the rope rather than getting another person who will use another four years to learn the rope, I think this is the time for stability.
Many people are scared about the possibility of the incumbent Government using the recently launched Security oufit, Amotekun in their favour during the forthcoming elections.
It amazes me how people on the street react to issues, I was not a fan of the Amotekun outfit when it was set up. I shared my opinion about the outfit that it might become a tool for politics, but the same people on the street were the one screaming that they wanted the outfit, now that they are changing their minds, not because Amotekun has done anything wrong but because of the speculations on the social media.
How many people have been recruited into the Amotekun in Ondo State, in my estimation, it can’t be more than one thousand, can a thousand people change the direction of an election, the answer is No.
What is your take on the recent fireoutbreak at the INEC office in Ondo, given the fact that it happened a few days to the governorship elections?
Many people believe in speculations, there is no conspiracy theory here. The truth is, there was a fire outbreak, the office of the Accountant-General got burnt, was it because of the card readers? A lot of places gets burn regularly.
The card readers didnt got burnt on the eve of the elections, the time it got burnt gives INEC the chance to provide substitutes, all the electoral body need to do is to go to Abuja, get the number of card readers that got burnt and reconfigure them.
The incident happened but i dont think it has anything to do with the forthcoming elections in Ondo State.
Meanwhile, the Ondo State governorship elections is slated for October 10, while the governorship polls in Edo State is scheduled for Saturday, September 19.
However, Honourable Adeogun also talked about the forthcoming 60th independence anniversary in Nigeria and some other issues, we shall bring you more in our subsequent reports.