Ondo State’s Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, presided over a State administrative Council meeting on Thursday, following months of squabbling between the administrative and legislative branches.
The gathering of the excos follows months of political squabbling between the deputy governor and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu‘s supporters.
The absence of the governor, who has been absent from the state for months due to illness, triggered the issue.
President Bola Tinubu invited the opposing sides to a conference in Abuja last Friday, when it was decided that the deputy governor should continue to serve as deputy governor.
The Exco meeting might be an indicator that the state’s political deadlock has ended.
Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), was re-elected state governor in October 2020 and inaugurated in for a second term in February 2021.
However, the governor’s second term, which began in January 2023, has not been without incident, as he was transported abroad for treatment of a medical issue. The 67-year-old politician returned to Nigeria in September after spending months abroad, but has remained in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.
Opposition parties have been putting pressure on Akeredolu to resign or give over authority to his deputy in accordance with the 1999 constitution.
