Aiyedatiwa mulls inclusive government as he receives Certificate of Returns

Aiyedatiwa mulls inclusive government as he receives Certificate of Returns

Joel Oladele, Abuja

Governor of Ondo State and now the official winner of the April 20 governorship primary election of All Progressives Congress (APC), Lucky Aiyedatiwa has reiterated his commitment to running an inclusive government with other aspirants who contested against him.

The Governor made the promise on Monday while addressing Newsmen after the presentation of Certificate of Returns to him by the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje, at the party secretariat in Abuja.

NATIONAL PERISCOPE recalls that Aiyedatiwa was declared the winner of the shadow election having defeated 15 other aspirants.

According to the Chairman of the primary election committee, Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State, Aiyedatiwa amassed 48,569 votes to defeat his closest rival Mayowa Akinfolarin who polled 15,343 votes in the election. Olusola Oke’s 14,865 votes got him the third position.

The outcome of the election has since been trailed with a series of petitions from aggrieved aspirants who described the exercise as a sham and daylight robbery.

Following the reconciliatory meeting between the aspirants and the leadership of the party last week, the APC National Working Committee (NWC), advised that the governor ensure inclusivity especially with all the  aggrieved aspirants. 

Aiyedatiwa however promised to keep to his own part of the resolution reached by considering their (other aspirants) interest in appointments yet to be made in the state. He added that he was consulting widely and would ensure none is neglected.

“Today, the exercise has been completed with the presentation of certificate of return to me. Today I have become the candidate of our great party. I thank President Bola Tinubu for the leadership he has provided, Vice President Kashim Shettima for supporting the leadership, the national chairman, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, for ensuring that we have a successful primaries. I thank the other aspirants for showing sportsmanship. My arms are wide open to them for us to go into the election as one,” he stated.

“An inclusive government, yes, like I told them during that meeting, that there are some appointments that have not been made that will soon be announced. And we’re looking at that, and that was why I said issues have been resolved, while consultation continues.”

Speaking on petitions filed by some of the aspirants, the governor said while consultation is still ongoing, the issues around the petition have been resolved, thus the presentation of Certificate of Returns to him.

“Let me say this that immediately after the primaries and the return of the winner, there are some of the aspirants that were aggrieved because of their opinion that there were irregularities in some of the wards and this led to setting up of the appeal committee.

“Petitions were submitted quite alright, I think about two or three of them, but we have been talking, consultation have been on, the national working committee under the leadership of the party invited all of us to plead for peace and cooperation which majority of them accepted.

“During that very meeting I can tell you amongst the 15 of us present, about 11 at that moment agreed that it is over with, that a winner or a flag bearer has emerged.

“And the other three we have been talking, and we have been relating,  and that was what has led to the final report of the Appeal Committee that was submitted and adopted by the National Working Committee. 

“That is to tell you that issues have been resolved, even though consultation continues,” the governor stated.

Earlier, the National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje while presenting the certificate to Aiyedatiwa, said Ondo is lucky to have someone like the governor as its leader and expressed optimism in his governance.

“There is no doubt I am happy because you are also happy. I’m happy because today is the day that we are presenting certificate of return to our gubernatorial candidate for Ondo State election comes November this year.

“And coincidentally, he was a deputy governor, he was an acting governor, he is a governor today, he will be a governor tomorrow. Ondo state will witness unprecedented development because of this sequence of continuity,” Ganduje said.