Tinubu has fully endorsed me, says Akeredolu

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming Ondo election, Rotimi Akeredolu, met with President Buhari 

Buhari receives Akeredolu and Lalong in Aso Rock

Akeredolu, a former NBA president, also took time to speak on the perceived political quarrel he has with Bola Tinubu 

After meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock, Abuja, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo state, Rotimi Akeredolu, spoke about his alleged political problem with the party’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Akeredolu said he was in a good working relationship with Tinubu, adding that the prominent politician and former Lagos state governor had endorsed his candidacy. It was widely reported that Tinubu was not comfortable the emergence of Akeredolu, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) as candidate of the party. Tinubu wanted Segun Abraham, according to reports. 

Akeredolu met with the president on Monday, October 31 and got his endorsement ahead of the election which holds later in November. READ ALSO: President Buhari to launch APC campaign in Ondo “Since the primaries, you would see that as a leader of the party, he (Tinubu) has not said anything about it. He has accepted the primaries, and we are moving on. 

“So, I don’t have any rift with him at all and we are moving on,” Akeredolu said in a report by Daily Trust. He accused the state Governor Olusegun Mimiko of encouraging the recent protest in the state resulting from the naming of Jimoh Ibrahim as the the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the election. “We’re calling on the security apparatus of the state to be up and doing so that they don’t allow miscreants to take over because, for instance, as a governor, you encourage lawlessness for people in the guise of protest because what the PDP has is a problem within the party. 

“That should not lead to demonstration outside and you know that people aren’t demonstrating for any reason, but because they’ve been more or less paid to come and do it. “Nobody can control the end of such demonstration. 

So, it’s not that we are afraid, but we fear for the life and property of the people of Ondo state,” he said. He expressed optimism that the APC would win the election. In his contribution, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state who accompanied Akeredolu, said: “A few weeks ago, I was given the responsibility of leading the campaign on behalf of the National Executive for the Ondo election. 

“And the candidate, since the primaries, has not come to be presented to the leader of our party, that is, Mr. President. “So, today (Monday), we came in with the candidate and to confirm to the president that APC has only one candidate unlike other parties that are fighting about who is their candidate. “We have only one candidate and that candidate is Chief Akeredolu Rotimi (SAN).”