The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State, Mr.Jimoh Ibrahim, on Wednesday, assured that the people of Akokoland would not be sidelined if elected .
Ibrahim who gave this assurance during his campaign to the four local government area of Akokoland, said the area has been sidelined politically and in terms of infrastructural development
He said he decided to contest because of the decisionof the state governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, to pick his successor from the Ondo central senatorial district.
He promised to pass the baton of leadership to an Akoko son after his administration, stressing that Akoko would benefited more from his government.
He said “If a governor comes from the Owo/Ose part of the North now, that automatically put the Akoko at a tight corner, and this part of the state will have to wait for another sixteen years before it rotates here again.
“If Mimiko had picked an Akoko man or woman as his successor, or someone from the southern Senatorial district, I would not have come out to contest.
“That is the fight we are fighting now; for equity, fairness and justice to every part of this state, and not that a district will hold on to power for sixteen years in a stretch. That is not good enough.’’
Responding, traditional rulers from the area, who spoke through the Oloba of Oba-Akoko, Oba Adeniyi Adegoroye, said the area needs government attention, urging Ibrahim to fulfill his promises if elected.
He said, “At the meeting, we concluded that its already late for an Akoko man to be the next governor, but we must ensure that we have a political alignment with a particular candidate from the part of the state that agreed to hand over power to our son after his own tenure.
“We’re very conscious of the fact that if we give our votes to our brothers from the South, it will be easy for us as Akokos to expect the governor slot to rotate to the North next dispensation, and particularly, the Akoko part of the North,” the monarch said