- However, the governor is too weak to sign any document, hence the transfer of power will be done by electronic signature (e-signature)
- Tinubu was said to have told people at the meeting he had summoned that Akeredolu was incapacitated and could not sign a letter anymore
President Bola Tinubu has ordered ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State to transfer power to his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa.
Tinubu gave the order at a meeting on Monday held to find a lasting solution to the political crisis in the state.
According to SaharaReporters, Tinubu on Monday held an emergency meeting the state deputy governor, Aiyedatiwa and House of Assembly Speaker, Olamide Oladiji to Aso Villa in Abuja.
Monday’s emergency meeting was the second one summoned by the President to address the leadership crisis in the state following the governor’s absence from office since July 2023.l.
The ailing governor has gone AWOL since returning to Nigeria in September from a three-month medical leave in Germany.
Apart from Aiyedatiwa and Oladiji, Akeredolu’s son, Babajide, who was appointed by the governor in November 2021 as the Director General of the Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit, Office of the Governor of Ondo State (PPIMU), was one of those present at the meeting.
The senator representing Ondo South, Jimoh Ibrahim, was also present.
SaharaReporters reports that it was first agreed that the State House of Assembly should invoke the doctrine of necessity to make Aiyedatiwa the acting governor, but some of those present pleaded with President Tinubu that it would humiliate the ailing governor.
“During the meeting, it was agreed that the State House of Assembly should invoke the doctrine of necessity and make Lucky Ayedatiwa the Acting Governor, but the Speaker and Senator Jimoh Ibrahim pleaded that the ailing governor would be humiliated,” one of the sources said.
“The son (Babajide) then promised to go and obtain his father’s e-signature to pen a letter to the State House of Assembly, transferring power to the deputy governor.”
Sources at the meeting also disclosed that someone raised concern that since there was already a case of forgery established in handling the affairs of the state, it would not make sense for power to be transferred through such dubious means.
The latest round of meeting is coming on the heels of a scheduled public demonstration by a pro-democracy organisation, Take-It-Back Movement.
The organisation would organise a town hall meeting in Akure on Saturday, December 16 to call for Governor Akeredolu to resume office or resign
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