President Bola Tinubu has summoned the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the State House of Assembly Speaker, Olamide Oladiji to Aso Villa in Abuja for an urgent meeting.
It is believed that Tinubu will ask that the deputy governor should be allowed to act as governor, to resolve the leadership crisis in the state.
However, TheEconomy learnt that the arrangement will not prevent a constitutional crisis as it will not require the ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to resign, even though he is ill and has been unable to perform the responsibilities required of his office for many months.
The call for the urgent meeting scheduled to be held today, Monday comes after human rights activist and #RevolutionNow convener, Omoyele Sowore, announced the scheduling of a town hall meeting and mass protests for Saturday in Akure to call on the ailing Governor Akeredolu to either return to office or resign.
The emergency meeting will be the second one summoned by the President to resolve the leadership crisis in the state following the governor’s absence from office since July 2023.
The call for the meeting comes about two weeks after Tinubu met with over 50 persons including Aiyedatiwa, his and aides of Governor Akeredolu, state commissioners, party chieftains and some elders of the state on November 24.
“Tinubu has summoned the Ondo State Deputy Governor and the House Speaker to another urgent meeting after Sowore announced mass protests and town hall meeting in Akure,” one of the top sources privy to the invitation told journalists on Sunday.
However, it was learnt that Sowore insisted that nothing short of Akeredolu’s resignation from office would be deemed to be acceptable.
Akeredolu’s son, Babajide, who was appointed by the governor in November 2021 as the Director General of the Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit, Office of the Governor of Ondo State (PPIMU), was one of those present at the November meeting.
Also present were the senators representing Ondo South (Jimoh Ibrahim), Ondo North (Jide Ipinsagba), and Central Districts (Adeniyi Adegbonmire).
It has been reported earlier yesterday that a pro-democracy organisation, Take-It-Back Movement would organise a town hall meeting in Akure on Saturday, December 16 to call for Governor Akeredolu to resume office or resign.
The event will also mark the commencement of street protests to call for the resignation of the ailing governor who has not set foot in his state since July 2023, the report added.
Sowore, the candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, on Sunday, also called on Governor Akeredolu to resume and perform his constitutional duty as governor of Ondo State or resign.
Sowore, in a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) handle disclosed that there would be a town hall meeting and beginning of street protests in Akure, the state capital and across the state on December 16, to demand Akeredolu’s resignation.
He wrote: “There will be a Townhall Meeting & a beginning of Street Protests In Akure and across Ondo state on Saturday December 16th 2023!
“All persons of conscience are invited! #GovAkeredoluMustResign #RevolutionNow.”
According to a flyer announcing the event, the town hall meeting organised by the Take-It-Back Movement and themed ‘Akeredolu; Resume Or Resign,’ will be held by noon on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at Akure Town Hall on Oba Adeside Road in Akure.