APC leadership queries Ondo State governor Rotimi Akeredolu over anti-party activities

GOVERNOR Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has received a formal query from the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) over his role in the last general elections that saw the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) win in his domain.

In February's presidential elections, the PDP presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar defeated President Buhari of the APC by 275,901 votes to 241 ,769. In the National Assembly elections, too, the PDP came out tops, winning two of the three senatorial seats in the state, while ion the House of Representatives elections, the APC only won four of the nine seats.

Governor Akeredolu has been accused of working against his own APC in the state by supporting some candidates of rival parties. As a result the APC's national working committee (NWC) has sent him a formal query over what it described as glaring anti-party activities.

APC national publicity secretary, Lanre Isa-Onilu, said: "The governor’s anti-party activities greatly affected the fortunes of our candidates in the recently conducted presidential and National Assembly elections in the state. Subsequently, a query has been sent to him according to the NWC’s resolution.

“It is not to my knowledge whether he has replied the query as you know that it is not my department that handles that particular assignment. I am not the one to receive his reply if he has done so but I know that a query has been dispatched to him.”

Ondo State information commissioner Yemi Olowolabi, said, however, that the query had not yet got to the governor. Mr Olowolabi, who denied the involvement of the governor in anti-party activities, explained that Governor Akeredolu was a loyal party member who always worked towards the progress of the APC.

He added: “I don’t think the governor has got any query and even if he was issued a query from the national headquarters of the party, it is not a death sentence. A query comes up out of a lack of information and desire to be educated and informed appropriately, so if the national headquarters of the APC had issued a query to the governor, I am very sure it is borne out of misinformation.

“The governor is a loyal party man but is not impossible for the headquarters to be misinformed or get deliberate distortion of facts, so if this happens, it can be  seeking clarification. When we eventually get the query, we will adequately educate and inform the national headquarters of the party appropriately and I can assure you that at the end of the day, what we will get will be a pat on the back for the quality information and truth at our disposal.”

Already, the APC has suspended Governors Rochas Okorochas and Ibikunle Amosun of Imo and Ogun states respectively for anti-party activities.  Both were found guilty of supporting non-party candidates against official APC aspirants.