Ondo state Governor, Mr Lucky Ayedatiwa has asked those trying to get him disqualified from the forthcoming governorship election to have a rethink, declaring that there was no vacancy in the Government House in Alagbaka.
Ayedatiwa spoke on Friday after he emerged from the screening of Ondo state All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.
Noting that the issues raised regarding his high school certificate were borne out of ignorance, the governor said evidence abound, indicating that he did not forge any of his certificates.
He said; “Screening is one of the exercises that must be done among the processes that the aspirants have to go through. Mine has just been done this morning and all documents that were submitted have to be verified and questions asked where some were not too clear to the screening committee. Questions were asked and answered and at the end of the day, I have been cleared that there are no issues. Especially the issue that has to do with the certificate for which a petition was written, that has now been put to rest. My certificates are genuine and authentic. I think it is just a kind of mischief by some other aspirants who find me to be an aspirant to beat trying to look for a way to discredit my person but that has been verified and put to rest.
One of the aspirants, Chief Olusola Oke who spoke with journalists after his screening, dismissed the governor’s declaration that there was no vacancy in Government House.
He said; “It is an aphorism from all incumbent persons. I heard this one in Lagos when Ambode was there. Ambode said ‘no vacancy’, 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 primaries 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 will be a vacancy.
“I don’t intend to take over from him before the expiration of his one year in office. So, the essence of this exercise is that there will be vacancy after one year term and that he or somebody else will occupy the seat. Having regard to my wide contact with the people, I believe that I am succeeding him”.
