Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has dismissed insinuations that his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari was to discuss the regional security outfit codenamed Operation Amotekun.
Speaking to State House correspondents yesterday after the meeting, Akeredolu said, rather he came to invite the president to commission to commission a N5 billion flyover constructed by the Ondo State government.
According to him, “That is probably why I had to brief you journalists, because as I was coming here, I read in one of our papers that I was coming in here to discuss about ‘Amotekun’ with the president. I did not discuss that with him in anyway. We didn’t even mention it. He wouldn’t have asked me because I was not here for that purpose.
“Issue of ‘Amotekun,’ is something to do with security and the vice president has come into the matter we have held a meeting and we are having subsequent meetings and on Thursday 6th February we the governors of states in the South West will meet with the inspector general of police to sort a few things out and smoothen edges.
On the insinuations that he wants to ride on the back of the ‘Amotekun’ issue to secure a second term of office, the governor said he has done enough for the people of Ondo State, therefore, he doesn’t need the ‘Amotekun’ popularity to be re-elected.
He said: “On the forthcoming election, you need to go to Ondo; I know that we have done more than enough. We are in the heart of the people of Ondo State, we don’t need ‘Amotekun’ to be in the hearts of the people. You need to go there, by the grace of God, not our calling but for what God has enabled us to do in Ondo State is there for you to see.”
On his invite to the president, Akeredolu said, “As you all know, I’ll be three years in office on the 24th of February and activities lined up in celebration of our third year in office include the inauguration of many of the projects which we have concluded and thats why I have come to see the president and to personally invite him to inaugurate our iconic flyover that we have in Ore, which Ondo State built over a federal road because we have enough carnage at that spot in Ore.
The flyover cost us over N5 billion. It is an important project to us.”
According to him, the project was an important one that had made the people of the state happy because, previous administrations in the state failed in their attempts to execute the project.
The governor also used the opportunity to renew his earlier calls for the legalisation of the farming of marijuana, which he said has a lot of economic and health values to the society.
“It’s not because I take it; I take CBD, that’s the oil, for medical purposes. I am convinced about the use to which we can put marijuana.
“I know of the fact because we had to bring in experts, who have gone round and believe that the strain of marijuana that we grow in Ogbese in Ondo State is the best in the world. So, if you have that then a government must find a way to put it into good use.
“Our own is that the pathway to growing marijuana for medical reasons, not for anybody to smoke,” the governor explained.
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