Ondo 2024: I’ll succeed Aiyedatiwa — Oke

Chief Olusola Oke, a leading governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress(APC) in Ondo State, on Friday said that Governor Lucky Ayiedatiwa would hand over the mantle of leadership to him in February, 2025 after he wins the November 16 election.

Oke disclosed this after he was cleared by a seven-man screening committee of the ruling party for April 20 primary.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who promised to make agriculture the mainstay of the state’s economic activities, also faulted the incumbent governor over his ‘no vacancy in Government House,’ statement, saying he will hand once his tenure expires.

Thefrontrank reports that immediately after the party’s screening committee cleared him, Aiyedatiwa said that the governor’s seat was not vacant.

Oke, while fielding questions from journalists at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, stressed that even Aiyedatiwa knows he has only one year left for him to leave.

“The essence of this exercise is to ensure there will be vacancy after one year term. After that, somebody else will occupy the seat.

“With regard to my wide contact with the people, I believe that I’m succeeding him. The phrase ‘No vacancy’ is an aphorism from all incumbent persons. I have heard this even in Lagos when Ambode was there.

“Ambode also said ‘no vacancy’, but he had to leave when he needed to leave. It is a statement of wish and desire by the governor, and it is a statement that is intended to undermine a democratic exercise. If we are going to primary and the people will have to determine, how would anybody have the guts to say there is no vacancy?

“There is no vacancy between now and February next year, no doubt. But after February, his one-year term will be exhausted, and then there’ll be a vacancy. I don’t intend to take over from him before the expiration of his one year in office,” Oke stressed.

He also praised members of the screening committee for diligently executing their duties.

Said he: “They have done their job the way they ought to do it. I had no reason to anticipate even before the screening that anything would come up. I am a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, and I have no certificates issued. Their own is merely to confirm what we have claimed. I’ve been a member of the National Assembly. They won’t deny me that. I’ve been a national officer of a political party, and they will not dispute that.

“So everything that I’ve given in my forms is true to the facts. I know no screening committee can disqualify that in the first place. But they’ve done their job thoroughly diligently, and I like that.”

Thefrontrank reports that Aiyedatiwa, Jimoh Ibrahim, Olusola Oke and 13 other aspirants are jostling for the APC ticket in the April 20 primary.