PDP governorship aspirant slams Akeredolu, says he has detached himself from Ondo people

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Ondo State, Olusola Ebiseni has decried the leadership style of the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, accusing him of detaching himself from the people of the state.

He said the people have suffered neglect by the outgoing Akeredolu – led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

Ebiseni, a former local government chairman and commissioner in the state said he is ready to return government back to the people at the grassroots.

The aspirant who also contested PDP governorship primary in 2016 spoke with journalists on Monday after obtaining the PDP expression of interest and nomination forms at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.

Speaking on Akeredolu, he said “I will tell you frankly, that one of the problems of the incumbent governor of Ondo State is that he is completely detached from the people. The leadership of the government is not ordinary players in the politics of the state. Not so much knowledge of the people do they have, so much that government have been reduced to provisions of infrastructure, which people take for granted.

“Before this administration came in, Ondo State University charged the least, even less than the Federal Government, but this government increased beyond the affordability and capability of the ordinary parents.

“We are virtually a peasant state as it were and there are so many things we cherish. We cannot afford to commercialise education in our state. We cannot afford to consign women to a death sentence because they want to deliver babies.

“What this administration inherited was a mother and child care, when a woman walks into the hospital, even with caesarean operation you will deliver freely, without paying anything. All of these have been commercialised, our women are now made to patronise quacks with unnecessary fatalities.

“So we intend to return to a situation where people will begin to have value for the government they had voted into power. We also intend to communicate directly with the people because we know the people and the people know that we know them.”

Rolling out his programmes and vision for Ondo State, Ebiseni promised to rebuild the economy base of the state leveraging on abundant natural resources like bitumen and petroleum.

“What would I do differently, I told you I have served as commissioner 3 terms, I have served as chairman of local government, but I have not been the captain of the ship. What I will do differently, is to move the state economically from a civil service state, in terms of economic status.

“Not withstanding that fact that we are an oil-producing state, that does not reflect in the economy of the state.  How then do we intend to take advantage of our God-given natural resources? In other to enlarge the economy and diversify opportunities for our people.

“Yes, the government in the past had made proposals, which we have been part of and which we intend to take advantage of. Incidentally, I was born and I grew up in Ogun State, and I do know that when you talk of Ogun State, the economy of Ogun State benefits from the economic spillover of Lagos State and makes it more resilient than other states in the South-West.

“If you will be surprised if I tell you that, Ondo State is just about 30 kilometres from Lekki along the coast. The government has proposed construction of the road to link Ondo State along the coast with Lagos. So if you are coming to even the northern part of Nigeria, you can just drive from Lekki and go through Ore and come to other parts of Nigeria. The advantage of that is to open up the economy of the state to the centre of economic development in Nigeria,” he said.