As the battle for the ticket of ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November governorshiip election in Ondo state hots up, three aspirants, including the incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, have experienced optimism that there would be no challenges in the pursuit to pick the party’s ticket at primary election.
The aspirants, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim as well as former finance commissioner in the state, Wale Akinterinwa, gave the assurances when they returned their completed nomination form at the APC national secretariat in Abuja on Friday.
The trio who made their feelings known after submitting their expression of interest and nomination forms at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday, equally said that if nominated by the party on the April 20 primary election they will win the November 16 guber polls.
Governor Aiyedatiwa who spoke moment after submitting his from, said his intention to go into the race was based on popular demand, and promised to consolidate on achievements recorded in the last few months he has taken over the reins of powers.
The governor who said he was not afraid of other aspirants in the race with him but sure of winning the ticket, maintained that his strides such as the payment of some salaries, pension and other arrears owed since 2014, WAEC registration, improvement in agriculture and other sectors of the state, would be further consolidated.
“All the aspirants are eminently qualified, but we know ourselves. There is nothing to fear. All of us are illustrious sons of Ondo Sate. But I have the support of the grassroots; the artisans and many others. So there is nothing to fear.
“Part of what we have been able to improve upon is to ensure that no staff of Ondo State is being owed their salaries. All their arrears had been cleared immediately I came into the office. We are also recruiting about 2000 teachers right now both in primary and secondary schools levels to cover the gap that has been created by the death of teachers in our school.
“I have just set up agric and food security committee to look into how we can improve on our agriculture and agric business in Ondo State make it attractive to the youths
On his part, the Senator Jimoh Ibrahim , who represents Ondo South, at the red chambers, boasted that he is most qualified for the job, considering his intimidating credentials, which he took time to roll out before journalists
He said he is going to win the next election as a movement he set up, has collected data of over 400,000 and he visited over 120 wards enlisting the people’s support.
The lawmaker said he would pay N140 million to the party for the 100,00 delegates membership forms to enable his supporters vote for him at the primary poll.
Ibrahim said when he becomes governor his focus is to ensure that the $47 billion worth Bitumen seated in Agbabu is extracted, adding that he is sponsoring bill in the National Assembly give legal backing to Bitumen exploration.
On security, he said: “I will fortify Amotekun and I will use app to dislodge insecurity. There are apps that can detects insecurity and crimes, this are what i will employ.
Modern security require this artificial intelligence to combat insecurity.”
Also speaking, Akinterinwa who served as Finance Commissioner to Late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu promised to continue with the legacy of improving the internally generated revenue of the state and other economic revival and programmes for the overall progress of the sunshine state.
“For any state to have serious meaningful development today they must be ready to grow their internally generated revenue. The era when you depend solely on the federation account whereby you come every month where you just pick your allocation and go home will not change the development narrative.
“It is my intention to take Ondo state to the outside world. We will ensure every opportunity that has to do with the marine economy is fully enhanced in Ondo state…we have a huge landmark so we are going to be intentional about the development of agriculture, he added.
