Tag: Akinterinwa

Three governorship aspirants who participated in the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have filed a petition before the primary appeal committee headed by the immediate past governor of Bauchi state, Muhammed Abdullahi Abubakar.

Those who filed the appeal were Wale Akinterinwa, Olugbenga Edema, and Jimi Odimayo.

Akinterinwa’s grounds of appeal were that the primary election ran foul of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Constitution of the APC, and the guidelines of the APC as set out by the Committee for the Ondo State gubernatorial primary election by the national leadership of the party.

He said there was no distribution of election materials as promised by the committee and a lack of election in any of the 203 wards in Ondo state.

Akinterinwa said the Ododo-led committee failed to obey or abide by its guidelines set for the election and demanded the election be cancelled.

He urged the Appeal committee to do everything within its powers to ensure the party is saved from ‘this national embarrassment.’

Odimayo and Edema, in their various petitions, also called for the cancellation of the election.

The chairman of the Appeal committee expressed the readiness of the committee to receive whatever complaints as a fallout from the primary election.

Read Also: Ondo APC primary: Aiyedatiwa, Akinterinwa end LGs tour

He said the committee would be available till Tuesday to collect whatever complaints that may arise.

He said: “Let me use this opportunity to assure members of our party that this committee intends to be thorough and transparent in treating any complaint that we will receive.

“I can assure you that within a space of a few days, we will consider the total number of petitions we received and render a report to the national headquarters of our party before the party takes a final decision on the issue of the primary.

“As I’m speaking with you,  only three petitions have been received. I am calling on all the aspirants that have complaint(s) to please, feel free to forward them to us. Our consideration of a petition depends on the ability of the petitioner to prove his allegations.

“We will work with the facts and figures placed before me. We will not give room for any conjecture. We have since established our office at the headquarters of the party for the collection of this appeal if there are.”

Other members of the committee are Hon Patrick Obahiagbon, and Onyeka Okafor among others.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has detained All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Ondo State Wale Akinterinwa.

He is being held in connection with the ongoing investigation of his tenure as Commissioner for Finance in the defunct Akeredolu administration.

Until the State Executive Council was dissolved by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who succeeded the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, Akinterinwa served as commissioner for over seven years.

The aspirant is being investigated for alleged mismanagement of billions of Naira, a source said.

Although Akinterinwa participated at the weekend direct primary from detention, EFCC said the timing of detention was at its discretion and choice.

According to sources, Akinterinwa was invited some weeks ago by the anti-graft body for interaction on some allegations, but was “allegedly too busy” to honour the invitation.

He, however, showed up at the anti-graft commission’s office on Thursday.

It was learnt that EFCC decided to be silent on the detention in order not to jeopardise Akinterinwa’s chances in the APC primary.

Read Also: Alleged N80b fraud: Legal argument begins over EFCC’s bid to arraign Yahaya Bello

A source, who spoke in confidence, said: “In the past few weeks, the EFCC invited Akinterinwa for interrogation on the red flag on some issues during his tenure as Commissioner for Finance. But he has not been forthcoming.

“The commission had the option to declare him wanted, but it exercised restrained to avoid being dragged into politics because he was an aspirant for the APC governorship primary.

“But Akinterinwa voluntarily reported to the EFCC in Abuja. He was taken into custody for quizzing.”

The soure speaking yesterday, said: “Akinterinwa is still in our custody. We did not arrest or pick him up, but he came up to respond to our long overdue invitation. I can tell you that his detention has no political undertone.”

A governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo state, Wale Akinterinwa, has promised to operate an inclusive administration to pave the way for the all-round development of the state.

Akinterinwa said he would re-engineer the empowerment of women and youths in the state as well as serve the people beyond expectations

The former Commissioner for Finance spoke while addressing members of the party in Akure North and Akure South local government areas ahead of Saturday’s APC governorship primary in the state.

He said he would provide both technical and financial support to the youth.

He said: “We will pursue the full value chain of agriculture. I will be the chief marketing officer. We will prioritize youth development. We will support our youths who are creative. We will give them both technical and financial support. It is not the giving of N50,000 but proper empowerment.

“The women will get meaningful empowerment. We will empower the women properly. We will institute a structure that will reward loyal party members. There must be a way to care for party members. Come out and vote for me on Saturday.”

It is noteworthy that the democratic system brings goodies to its citizens and all these await us all

“My doors will be opened to receive any complaint and apply adjustment where necessary I can assure you of that”

Read Also: Jimoh, Oke, Akinterinwa, others kick against APC’s membership revalidation

“Provisions of infrastructure and other social amenities would be placed in high esteem in my administration. What’s expected of you is to go and exercise your franchise on Saturday’s party’s primary.”

Present at the campaign ground include former speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly Rt Hon Fatai Akurumaku, Member of Ondo State House of Assembly representing Odigbo Constituency 1, Ifaviyi Olatunji, his Ileoluji/Okeigbo counterpart, Nelson Akinsuroju, and other notable party’s stalwarts at the state level.

Ondo State Government may probe alleged fuel theft by a vehicle in the convoy of a governorship aspirant, Mr. Wale Akinterinwa.

A viral video showed a CCTV camera capturing a vehicle belonging to  Akinterinwa campaign organisation stealing fuel at a filling station in Ondo town.

Government sources said the probe was to find out authenticity of the video and probably prosecute the persons involved.

But the Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Organisation (WACO) said the viral video was a plot to blackmail Akinterinwa and members of his campaign team.

A statement by spokesman of WACO, Segun Ajiboye, said vehicle in the video was not part of the convoy and does not belong to any member of the team.

Read Also: Ondo APC primary: Ile-Oluji residents walk for Akinterinwa

Ajiboye confirmed the campaign team indeed bought fuel at the station and paid for the fuel the vehicles received.

“Let it noted that our convoy, indeed bought fuel at the Matrix filling station at the Akure garage in Ondo town. All the vehicles in our convoy were served fuel and full payment was duly made.

“The latest attempt to blackmail our team has not come to us as a surprise in any way. Having exhausted all their weapons and wicked machinations, the desperate politicians have now resorted to use blackmail as their weapon of attack.

“Meanwhile, determined to get the root of the blackmail effort and to put the records straight, Hon Wale Akinterinwa has directed his lawyers to write the management of the filling station to confirm the authenticity of the video and the identity of the purported member of his convoy who allegedly refused to pay for the fuel he was served,” he said.

Residents and indigenes of Ile-Oluji, Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government Area, have embarked on a road walk to canvass support and solidarity for the emergence of Wale Akinterinwa, as candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November governorship election.

Akinterinwa is among the many aspirants that picked and submitted the party’s nomination forms to contest the primary scheduled for April 20.

Hundreds of Ile-Oluji residents marched through major streets of Ile-Oluji.

Monarch of the Ile-Oluji, the Jegun of Ile-Oluji kingdom, Oba Oluwole Adetimehin, expressed support for Akinterinwa as he offered prayers for his success at the primary.

Oba Adetimehin, who danced to admiration of his subjects at the palace, said the community’ decision to support Akinterinwa was because they knew he could move the sytate forward.

Speaking at a rally after the road walk, a chieftain of the Ondo APC, Demola Akinbola, said Akinterinwa possessed the required qualification to lead the state to greater heights.

Akinbola explained that the road walk was to mobilise support for Akinterinwa.

He said: “The community has come together to show solidarity. We are solidly behind him. We support his ambition, we support his aspiration and we organize the solidarity rally to show the community’s support for him and we believe in God that he’s going to get the ticket.

“Our primary focus is this community because the aspirant himself has put in place an elaborate plan to tour all the 18 local governments and to mobilize. So, for now, we are limited to this community. However, we are ready to go with him to the nooks and crannies of this state to solicit votes.

“In other words, this solidarity rally is all about Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo local government coming together as one community to show support for his ambition and to let the whole world know that he’s capable, competent, and has experience. He’s also the only one who understands governance as far as Ondo state is concerned. 

“He was Commissioner for Finance for over seven years, so, he knows the economy of the state, and looking at his achievements, he moved the IGR of the state from barely N500m to over N1.5b. This simply shows that he knows what he’s doing and if given the opportunity, he will transform the economy of the state.”

The Aro of Ile-Oluji kingdom, Chief Sola Akinfemiwa, said Akinterinwa has the requisite knowledge about the state.

“So, really, this should be a piece of cake for him. Essentially, this is about our LG it is about the state. So, some of us just feel that because we know him. Let us give him all of the support that we can get from the community and that is the reason why you see everybody from this community going for him.” 

On the insinuation that Ile-Oluji does not belong to the Southern senatorial district, Chief Akinfemi said: “That is not true, the structures of the state are there, so, why are we going by insinuations? So, I don’t want us to give an ear to what is very unimportant. We are part and parcel of the South and we have always been part of the South of the state.

“Like I said, the Akinterinwa has been in government for so long. He has been in government as Finance Commissioner for eight years, he worked with two governors and he is been doing all of the developmental things that this state has benefited from go and look at the record of where the IGR has moved from. 

“So, really we are looking for someone who is well tested, somebody who is interested in the job, somebody who is fighting to be governor and who has an idea of the economy of the state, someone who will cater for the welfare of the people, someone who values education.

“What we are doing here today is not even political, we have a group that is called Ile-Oluji Assembly and it’s all about economic development, socio-economic engineering and he’s a full member. He’s a full sponsor of this project. So part of what we are doing today is our mandate as people pushing for the
development of the State.”

A former Commissioner for Finance in Ondo State and governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Wale Akinterinwa, has announced suspension of his political activities.

Akinterinwa said the suspension of political activities was to honour the death of a fellow aspirant, Dr. Paul Akintelure.

The former Commissioner had scheduled to commence his political activities ahead of the APC primary with a praise worship at his Ile-Oluji country home.

Read Also: Ondo 2024: Thugs destroying my billboards, Akinterinwa cries out

He said he suspended the kick starting in honour ‘of a friend and comrade.’

“I am saddened by the news of the passing of a friend and comrade.

“Following this sad incident, I have decided to suspend all political activities of our campaign organisation.

“I pray God to console his family, friends and the APC in Ondo state and to give the fortitude to bear this great loss.”