Ondo 2024 debate: Don’t Play Politics With Security , Agboola Tells Aiyedatiwa.
By Olusegun HOSEA. 3rd November, 2024.
The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party-PDP Alfred Agboola Ajayi has told the Executive Governor of Ondo State His Excellency Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa not to play politics with the issue of security in the state. Starting this on the Ondo State Governorship debate 2024 organised by the Channels TV, for the candidates of the two major political parties in the state, the People’s Democratic party-PDP and All progressive party-APC. Agboola called the attention of the incumbent governor to the state of insecurity happened in some part of the state like in Ondo town, Igbatoro and Ikaramu in Akoko area. He said if he becomes the governor of the state, all these social virces would become a things of the past.
In a positive response to the issue, Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa said there was no place in the world that is completely free of crime. That even in America that have high security apparatus with high level of gallant security personnel are still experiencing insecurity in some cases where criminal still got people killed in the classroom in America. That those cases sited by his opponent are minors case and these can be handled by the police unlike the cases of kidnapping and high profile robbery are serious cases the government is facing as security challenges.
He said the state government has established a unit called Amotekun Rangers that would take care of those boundaries where criminal used to operate between Edo -Ondo and Kogi -Ondo boundaries. According to the governor, the Amotekun Rangers would be there permanently to combat any emergency cases related to the insecurity in those areas.
Although, the governor said that there was no issues of insecurity within the metropoly of the state because of the cooperation between the Amotekun and other security Agencies present in the state.That everybody are going about their business, and investors are coming in to the state for one business and the other. He said the state is preparing to host a world entrepreneur festival where investors would come from all over the world and that if the state is not safe, they will not come and do business in Ondo State. He said they have done their research and carried out their background check and found out that the state is safe to do business.
While, Agboola Ajayi was of the opinion that the major problem facing the state was the issue of unemployment and lack of infrastructure which was affecting the Youths as there were no job that would keep them busy. He said if he becomes the governor of the state ,he would provide Job opportunities for the people of the state that would keep everyone busy and when this happens, the issue of insecurity would be reduced and that the issue of spending 1.2billion to combat insecurity would not be there. But Aiyedatiwa knocked out the allegations of the 1.2 billion naira as security money for the state. He said that allegations was not true at all. But when asked how much was coming in as security vote, the governor said the matter was a security issue which should not be discussed publicly under this forum .
Issue of State police
The governor said that he supported the federal government plan to established state police in the states across the Federation. According to him, Ondo State have been running the prototype of the state police via the establishment of the Amotekun Corps and that they have not used the Corps to treating any citizen or used them for any political activities. He said the recruitment was based on the local government areas across the State as those personnel recruited known their territory very well and this was easy for the corps to tackling insecurity in the state .
The governor said that Amotekun was structured in a way that they deal with the security challenges in the state just in collaboration with police sector .He said because it’s locally based, it was easy for them to track every crimes to its roots. He said since the inception of the corps, the state have conducted three elections and the Amotekun had not be participated and so the fears that they would be used for political activities is not there .
Also, Agboola Ajayi gave his backing on the establishment of the state police in the state. He gave the credit to the former Governor Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu-SAN CON for establishing the corps. But alleged the current government of almost destroying the legacy of the Corps. He said he was happy that Amotekun would not be used for the election as said by the Governor and that the people of the state would not allow that to happen as they would revolt against it if government try to use them for the conduct of any elections. Agboola said that he would strengthened the existence of the Amotekun very well if he becomes governor with modern gadgets for them to functions very well.
Alleged 1.2b naira Security Vote
On the allegations of 1.2b collected for security vote, Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa denied the allegations that there is nothing like that and that he didn’t know where his opponent got the figure from.” I have never drawn a security vote up to 1.2 b naira, where? when?and how? Is not true, is just a political lies. Are you the Accountant General of the state? Are you the commissioner for Finance? Where do you get your information from? Are you part of the government? You cannot just Play Politics by coming here to tell lies to the whole world ,that somebody is drawing 1.2b naira as a security vote. That is a lie from the pit of hell and is not true ” Aiyedatiwa said. But when Agboola was asked where he got his figures from, his response was that he got it from the public as the document was on the public domain and he got it from there. He said as a matter of fact , the money doesn’t goes directly to the security agents and that he knew where the money was going to. He said the security vote was meant to address the security challenges in the state and make life meaningful to the people of the state. The governor said his allegations was false as there was budget for all the government expenditures for the year and there was no how he could go beyond the limit of Budget as he didn’t drawn any money up to the turn of 1.2 billion naira as security vote for the conduct of Edo elections . Therefore, what is saying was not true and that is a lie.
