Inside Akeredolu, Ajayi dirty fight over official vehicles
It is not often that a former deputy governor of a state is splashed on the pages of newspapers by his former boss over alleged refusal to return official vehicles.
However, the once healthy relationship and political alliance between Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and his former deputy, Agboola Ajayi, credited for ending the political grip of Olusegun Mimiko on Alagbaka Government House, Akure, has gone sour for several reasons.
Months after the duo in 2016 defeated Eyitayo Jegede, the anointed candidate of the then governor, Mimiko, popularly known as Iroko, the relationship began to crumble, culminating in Ajayi dumping the All Progressives Congress (APC) for his former political party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in June 2020.
On the day of his defection, Ajayi was restricted and barred from leaving his official residence in the government house for over four hours by the police, allegedly acting on the order of the governor.
Two days after his defection to PDP, Governor Akeredolu ordered that all Ajayi’s seven aides be withdrawn, including the two aides assigned to the wife of the embattled deputy governor.
The former member of the House of Representatives had accused Akeredolu, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) of attempting to strangulate his political ambition while arguing that that the APC ‘has become a poisoned space’.
His decision to contest against Akeredolu while still serving as his deputy intensified the acrimonious relationship and attacks from both sides before, during and after the election.
Attempts to impeach Ajayi as deputy governor were also made by the state legislature, but failed due to lack of the required twothird majority.
However, Ajayi, who was the candidate of Zenith Labour Party, failed at the poll as he came a distant third behind Jegede of PDP and Akeredolu, who won reelection on the ticket of the APC.
Ajayi’s tenure expired with the first four-year term of Akeredolu in February but the hostilities didn’t end.
Recently, the Ondo State government wrote a letter to the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Bolaji Salami, asking the police in the state to prevail on the former deputy governor to return four government vehicles in his possession.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special Duties & Strategy, Dr Doyin Odebowale, in the letter, said all entreaties to Ajayi to return the vehicles, for the use of the incumbent deputy governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, were rebuffed.
He alleged that the vehicles in Ajayi’s possession, unlawfully, were a Land Cruiser SUV, two new Toyota Hilux and a Toyota Hilux vans.
In his reply, the former deputy governor admitted that he was holding on to only two vehicles.
Ajayi said he only had two official vehicles in his possession contrary to the allegation made by the state government.
Ajayi who spoke through his media aide, Allen Sowore, said he returned all vehicles in his possession on February 23, the day his tenure ended except the two vehicles, a Land Cruiser and a Hilux Jeep.
He said he was entitled to the two vehicles like any other former deputy governors in the state.
He said one of the vehicles being demanded was at a mechanic’s workshop in Okitipupa while the other was still with the dealer because full payment had not been made.
He said Akeredolu should be prepared not to take any government vehicle at the end of his tenure if he (Agboola) is made to return the two vehicles.
Unsatisfied with the explanation, the government threatened to drag Ajayi to court.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Donald Ojogo, declared Ajayi’s action Illegal, accusing him of unlawfully appropriating the cars to himself.
However, the former deputy governor agreed to return the vehicles last week ‘to allow peace to reign’.
Ajayi, in a statement in Akure by his media aide, Sowore, said members of the inner circle of the governor have decided to prioritise their time to harass him on a number of issues, most especially with regards to the return of vehicles, stressing that he had hoped “these petty interactions would have ceased after the recent inauguration.”
“To be clear, if the return of these two vehicles will make the administration focus more on the avalanche of pressing needs, challenges and predicaments facing the state, most especially insecurity, the absence of governance and unpaid salaries across the entirety Ondo public sector, then I’m ready to make the sacrifice and return the two vehicles which they so desperately need,” he said.
As at the time of filing this report, three of the vehicles have been retrieved from the former deputy governor - a Toyota Land Cruiser Jeep, V8, 2019 model and two Toyota Hilux vans also 2019 models.
The state government expressed gratitude to the security agencies, especially the police for intervening.