Ondo Mega Party slams APC over good governance, economy

THE Ondo state chapter of Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN) on Thursday said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state has failed to enshrine good governance and economic development in the state, saying Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has performed below expectation in his over two years in office.

Speaking during a press conference in Akure, Ondo state capital, the Chairman of MPN in the state, Mr Biyi Poroye, said there was no physical development in the state in the last two years.

He said the state government had shown and demonstrated gross incompetence in governance at all levels, and said the Akeredolu administration had failed woefully in the area of infrastructural development, saying the people of the state had rejected the administration.

Poroye said the incompetence of Akeredolu and his team were exposed during the last February 2019 election where the party lost the Presidential election in the state because of the team non- performance.

He said: “It is evident that Akeredolu led government did not showcase any infrastructural project until after the general election, having discovered that they been rejected by the citizens of the state based on their non-performance within two years in the office.

ALSO READ: APC leaders behind my ordeal, Okorocha alleges

“The deceptive mannerism of the governor and his team have been exposed and the citizens can no longer be deceived. Most of the projects suddenly embarked upon and paraded by the governor, was a strategy to give the impression that they are performing.

“It is on record that up till now the governor and his team cannot tell the people what they met on ground and both in liquid and assets. What he has borrowed and how to pay it. What has happened to billions of naira Paris Club refund and bailout funds collected?

Condemning the education policy introduced by the APC government in the state, the MPN Chairman said “rather than concentrating on the educational development of our children while Million of Naira was spent to reconstruct a new governor’s office with the installation of elevators while our universities have been closed down as at today. How can a government increase school fees from N25,000 to N180,000 without alternative payment for the students?

“Under Akeredolu, our afforestation has been contracted out for 99 years thereby encouraging mass and mobile sawmilling of our woods. The forestry is practically vandalised. Our reserves have been deliberately penetrated and encroached.”

He alleged that the ruling administration in the state has failed to organise local government election saying despite fixing the date for the local government election but the election was postponed indefinitely because the electoral was not mobilised.

The state electoral commission was not mobilised and frustrated while the governor came up with a deceptive and distractive mannerism to create more LCDA knowing fully well that none of the LCDA can participate in an election.

Poroye said his party would not relent in criticising the APC government in the state, describing the administration as being deceptive to the people of the state and had failed to put the dividends of democracy at the doorsteps of the people of the state.

Reacting to the MPN allegations, the State Commissioner of Information and Orientation, Mr Yemi Olowolabi, described the state Chairman of MPN as being “deliberately mischievous” saying that the present administration in the state has carried massive infrastructural renewal in the state.

He said the Akeredolu government has constructed more roads in the Southern senatorial district where Poroye hailed from than any other government in the state, while over 20 schools had been renovated in the area.

Speaking on the increase in the tuition fee of the state-owned institutions, Olowolabi said “the only school which the state government increase was the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, while others schools pay more above N200,000 before this government came on board.

“The governing council of the institution recommended an increase in the school fee because what they are paying was outrageous and the school is almost dead while there was no fund release to the institution for many years.