Ondo Deputy Governor Presides Over Executive Council Meeting As Akeredolu’s Absence Lingers

After months of bickering between the executive and legislative arms in Ondo State, the Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, presided over a State Executive Council meeting in Akure, the state capital, on Thursday.

The excos’ meeting occurred after months of political wrangling between the deputy governor and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s loyalists.

The crisis was occasioned by the absence of the governor, who has been out of the state for months due to ill health.

Last Friday, President Bola Tinubu summoned the warring factions to a meeting in Abuja where it was agreed that the deputy governor should continue to perform his duties as deputy governor.

The exco meeting might be an indication that the political impasse in the state may have come to an end.

Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), won his re-election as the state governor in October 2020 and was sworn in for a second term in office in February 2021.

However, the governor’s second term, since January 2023, has not been a smooth sail as he had to be flown abroad for treatment over a medical condition. The 67-year-old politician returned to Nigeria in September after months overseas but has been in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Akeredolu has been under intense pressure from opposition parties to resign or hand over power to his deputy in line with the 1999 constitution.