Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has broken his silence on the ongoing local autonomy debate and agitations.
Akeredolu made known his position on LG autonomy during his maiden Media Chat tagged “An Evening with the Governor” broadcast on the services of OSRC and Orange Fm.
He said during the campaigns, he never promised to support LG autonomy being a lawyer who understands the principle of true Federation.
Akeredolu called for more robust dialogue on the local government autonomy debate in a way that is beneficial to all strata of society.
” I never said I will support local government autonomy during my campaign “We must handle local government autonomy with caution because Nigeria has only the federal and state as federating units”
On the agitations for the 2017 leave bonus payment, Akeredolu said government will pay when the state is buoyant stressing that it was not a ‘right but a bonus’.
Akeredolu also debunked rumours that he was shielding his predecessor and friend, Olusegun Mimiko over the indebtedness of his government.
“Yes mimiko is my friend, I cannot deny that because politics will come and go but
I restate that what I met on ground is over 220 billion debt,its a fallacy to say mimiko left money, if yes, why was he owing?”
On the recent reconciliation moves led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Akeredolu said the former governor has no business coming to Ondo state since there was no crisis.
“All is well with the APC in Ondo state..we are waxing stronger. Olusola Oke has just returned to stay longer so AsiwajuTinubu has no reason to come here
“Where there is peace, you don’t need a peacemaker so you don’t create more problems” he said
Akeredolu specifically commended the management of OSRC for translating government’s vision to revamp the station to a reality in a profound way and the novel way the media chat was handled which facilitated smooth connection with the Omoluorogbo and Okitupupa Outside Broadcast van.
“We are proud of OSRC TV’s outing tonight..what you have done is a mini CNN outing… Kudos to the management.”
