The Ondo State Commissioner for Information, Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, said that the Deputy Governor of the State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, was told to sign his resignation letter by President Bola Tinubu.
This, according to him, was the nub of the president’s intervention in the political crisis rocking the state.
Aiyedatiwa and his boss, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, have been at daggers drawn but the Deputy Governor presided over the state’s executive council meeting on Thursday.
This followed a resolution meeting between the governor’s factions and those loyal to the deputy.
However, Ademola-Olateju, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Lunchtime Politics on Friday, said that the President asked the deputy governor for a signed undated resignation later in case anything untoward happens.
“First of all, before I even talk about the Abuja meeting, I just want to thank the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for being a very good leader and wading into the crisis in Ondo State.
“His intervention has cooled the temperature that was just going haywire in Ondo State; we thank him.
“At the Abuja meeting, key decisions were made by Mr President, who is the leader of our party, the All Progressives Congress. Those key decisions were that the status quo in the state be maintained.
“He decided that the executive council must not be dissolved under any condition, and the party structure should be maintained, that the leadership of the House of Assembly should be intact, and he nominated three people—the Secretary to the State Government, the party chairman, and the speaker of the house—to be the enforcers and to forestall further problems.
“He asked for the signed resignation letter of Honourable Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the Deputy Governor, undated in case anything untoward happens, so that is what I know,” the commissioner said.
The Ondo State House of Assembly and its Speaker also withdrew an appeal filed before the Court of Appeal, Abuja, against the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which stopped the planned impeachment of Aiyedatiwa.
The House of Assembly and its Speaker had challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to handle the matter and appealed against the court’s ruling halting the planned impeachment of the deputy governor.
At Thursday’s proceedings, counsel for the Speaker and the Assembly, Remi Olatobura, told the three-member panel of justices of the appellate court that he has the instructions of his clients to withdraw the appeal.
The senior lawyer told the court that parties in the matter have found a political solution to their problems and have signed an agreement to withdraw the appeal.
According to Olatubora, the appeal is being withdrawn in the interest of peace and as part of the agreement reached by the parties.
Respondents in the appeal confirmed that they were served with the notice of withdrawal, adding that they were not objecting to the notice of withdrawal.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, who led the three-member panel, subsequently dismissed the appeal, which had been withdrawn by the appellants.
