Convalescing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State is yet to return to the state to take charge of the administration about 33 days he returned from Germany where he was hospitalized for three months.
For now, Akeredolu is running the Sunshine State from his Ibadan, Oyo State home.
An indication to this effect was given by Mr Doyin Odebowale, the Special Adviser on Special Duty and Strategy.
According to him, Akeredolu is not working from the capital, Akure, for what he called “accommodation challenges.”
Persecondnews recalls that Akeredolu has been absent from the state since his return from a medical vacation abroad on September 7, causing political tension and ripples in the state with the youths of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday issuing an ultimatum to the governor to return.
Speaking on Channels TV programme, “Politics Today”on Tuesday, Odebowale said due to Akeredolu‘s “state of health” he needs a better apartment to carry out his task of administering the state.
“Aketi came back in September. Where he used to stay – the Presidential Lodge built for the visiting President at that time , Olusegun Obasanjo – is a two-bedroom apartment.
“Now, he is back. He cannot occupy that place again. The old Governor’s Office – the Governor’s Lodge built by the previous administration is now the office of the investment outlet called the ODIPA. That is the office.
“So, the governor has been managing a two-bedroom apartment for six years. But his current state of health would not permit him to pretend that all is well.
“He would need all the things for him to recover properly. That is why the new place that is being arranged for him is almost completed,” the governor’s aide said.
He wondered why critics want his principal back in the state, maintaining that “governance has been going on smoothly” despite Akeredolu’s absence in Ondo State.
“When they say they want to see Aketi, do they want to see him at the site so that he would be carrying cement or following workmen? What exactly?
“The civil servants have been paid all their salaries. Aketi has been signing laws since he came back,” he said.
Odebowale claimed the recent ripples over the Ondo governor’s absence point to the fact that he (Aketi) is “surrounded by enemies from within even his family”.
Leave a comment