The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming October 10 Governorship election in Ondo state and the incumbent governor of the state, Rotimi Akeredolu on Monday declared that he would repeat the feat he achieved four years ago when he defeated the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, Eyitayo Jegede.
The October 10 election would be a replay of what happened in the 2016 election when he first defeated the PDP candidate.
Speaking at the APC National Secretariat of the APC shortly after appearing before the Ondo state Governorship Appeal Committee of the party, Akeredolu once again asked his opponents during the party’s primary election in Akure to accept defeat and team up with him in the interest of the party and Ondo people.
He also once more wrote off his estranged deputy, Agboola Ajayi as a politician of no consequence, “with virtually no electoral value”.
He said his deputy’s defection from the APC was a good riddance to bad rubbish, insisting that even in his (Ajayi’s) local government, the PDP candidate would lose completely.
“For me, the deputy leaving the APC to return to the PDP is good riddance to bad rubbish. We thought we could accommodate him at the APC but since he returned to where he truly belonged, it is all well and good. I always wish people the best I can.
“From what I have been told, he has lost the ticket and I pray he won’t jump to another place but if he does, all well and good. However, for his own sake and as a big brother, I will advise him to stay with Jegede, support him very well.
“He has made a case that he helped me to win, let him help him to win and we will confirm that he is popular. What I know is that he is of no importance, he has no hold on any local government, I can assure you that come during the election, I will defeat him in his local government and he will never recover from it. He is of no influence anywhere and we picked him because we felt we have someone from PDP coming to join us. We picked him to join us but he feels and tells people that he is grass-rooted.
“Let me advise him again to stay with Jegede and let us see what happens. Jegede is my friend. We are colleagues and both members of the inner bar, I don’t have anything against him and I just pray that our campaign should be issue-based without violence and I know that he knows that it will not be easy for him. Yes, it may not be easy for me to win, but by His Grace, I am going to win. I can assure that as it was in the beginning, so it shall be now and forevermore. We will win this election by the grace of God”.
