A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kayode Ajulo, has said that any political solution that will be brought into the ongoing crisis in Ondo State must be constitutional, if not, it is illegal, regardless of who is presenting the solution.
The lawyer, who is the Principal Partner, Kayode Ajulo & Co. Castle of Law, said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, where he also revealed that the governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, has been at large, with his whereabouts being kept hidden from residents of the state, as he said that there is “palpable fear in Ondo State.”
After President Bola Tinubu intervened and urged the competing groups to accept peace and preserve the status quo, the months-long leadership crisis in the state most likely came to an end.
In response to this, Ajulo said, “The office of the governor and the deputy governor in Ondo state is an executive office of which the constitution says should not be subjected to whims and caprice of anybody, even the governor or the president of the nation. That is why we have the constitution that governs, that regulates, that states how it should be.
“If we believe that some political solution, that political solution, no matter how lofty it must be, it must be in tandem with the provision of the constitution. Anything beyond or below that is unacceptable, it is ultra bias, it’s unlawful, it’s illegal and can never stand the test of time.”
Ajulo then said that the issue is that everyone seems to think that a political solution will solve the occurring issues in Ondo state as he stated, “As of today, the governance, good governance, even governance, I don’t want to even call it good governance, has taken flight in Ondo State. Democracy seems to be something we are looking for. And because of that, you know, when we have such issues, illegality is reigning. Violation of the constitution from top to down, it’s happening.”
Speaking on the state of Akeredolu’s health, he said, “The governor, unfortunately, is indisposed, and I think I need to say this, we don’t even know where the governor is. The governor is at large, and it is quite unfortunate. And when such situations happen, the constitution is so clear how it is, and that is why whenever you are running for that such post, there is always what we call spare tire, that’s the deputy governor. The constitution recognises and realises that we can have such situation.
“The governor is sick, yes, he is sick, we should allow him to rest, and when he is okay, he will be back. But pending that time, we should not allow jackass cabal, people of undesirable elements, those that believe that they need to drag down the constitution and use unlawful means to take the commonwealth of the people to do so. The essence of having the office of the president, and office of the governor, and office of deputy governor is for this purpose, but to now turn Ondo State to a state, take us back to the Julius Caesar time where we have trumventry, we had two people with superintend and governor. It is not in, there is nowhere.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuez
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