By Akintunde Jacobs, Akure
Residents and indigenes of Ile-Oluji, in Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State, have declared their implicit support for the ambition of their son, Wale Akinterinwa ahead of the coming April 20 governorship primary election of All Progressives Congress (APC) and November 16th, 2024 gubernatorial election in the state.
Akinterinwa, the immediate past Commissioner for Finance in the state, is one of the numerous aspirants gunning for the governorship ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the April 20th, party’s primary election.
They threw their weight behind Akinterinwa during a town hall meeting and rally held at the weekend where thousands of the residents and indigenes pledged to support the ambition of the former Finance Commissioner in the state.
The Jegun of Ile-Oluji kingdom, Oluwole Adetimehin, who also welcomes the mammoth crowd in his palace said the community unanimously decided to support their son, Akinterinwa to move the state forward.
Speaking at the rally, Demola Akinbola said the Ile-Oluji-born governorship aspirant and financial expert is eminently qualified to lead the state as governor.
Akinbola said; “Basically, we are mobilising support for our brother, our son, Mr. Wale Akinterinwa who is contesting for the ticket of APC governorship election
“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.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Aro of Ile-Oluji kingdom, Sola Akinfemiwa said; “one’s daughter would not possess a gorgeous waist while one adorns another person’s daughter with a waist bead.
“We are supporting him because he’s one of our own and because we feel very comfortable that he can do it because he’s been doing it for quite a while, I know personally that he’s been doing this job for so long.
“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.”
Speaking on the insinuation that Ile-Oluji does not belong to the Southern senatorial district, Akinfemiwa 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, 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 has been doing all of the developmental things that this state has benefitted 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 this community.”