As the October 10 gubernatorial election in Ondo approaches, barbs are thrown by opposition teams.
Recently, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and his deputy Hon Agboola Ajayi have had a falling out. Ajayi, now the governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party, has alleged that Governor Akeredolu receives N750 million monthly as security vote.
Ajayi said this in reaction to Akeredolu’s claim that he receives 13 million as grant monthly, the highest of any deputy governor.
Through his media adviser, Allen Sowore, Ajayi responded saying Akeredolu receives N750 monthly as security votes. He also alleges that the wife and son of the governor both receive millions of naira monthly as imprest without occupying any recognised constitutionally recognised office.
He also insists that the governor lied with the figure since he only receives N12 million.
“The Deputy Governor is surprised that the Governor could go to the press announcing the sum of N13m as what the Deputy Governor gets as if it was a gift for the personal use and not for the use of his office.
“The Deputy Governor states that what came to his office until Akeredolu refused to release same was 12million naira per month. This includes the imprest of his office, allowances of staff, fuelling of vehicles, care of his residence and welfare of his aides.
Dispelling would-be critics on the amount, he says, “Huge as the amount may appear, it amounts to not so much when the heads and number of individuals it caters for are considered.
“The governor gets a security vote of 750million naira every month. He, Akeredolu, also gets an imprest of about N150million.
Through his chief press secretary, Segun Ajiboye, the governor responded by calling Ajayi a liar. He said, “The disclosure by Mr Governor that the governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party(ZLP) receives a monthly running grant of N13 million appears to have further emitted the entrenched character of the man in question, Agboola Ajayi.
“True to type, Ajayi has resorted to lies and fabrications that Mr Governor gets a monthly payment of N750m as security vote. This brazen misinformation is not a surprise but a true reflection of the unstable and treacherous content in Ajayi.
“The general public is urged to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act to interrogate both statements by Mr Governor and Ajayi.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the State Bureaucracy which process such payments is very available to confirm the veracity or frivolity of either of the statements.
“The October 10 governorship election is between integrity and the absence of it.
“The patent greed which has provided motivation for the treachery and perfidy of Ajayi appears to have created further paths of dishonesty to oil his political misadventure. Succinctly, he is misled my his mind of greed.
“By his antecedents, Agboola Ajayi would have wittingly provided evidence of the payment of such huge amount even before now if it was true,” the statement read.
