Gov Aiyedatiwa Denies Orchestrating Attack on Ondo APC Secretariat

Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State has denied allegations that he ordered thugs to attack the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress in Akure.

He however insisted he was attending a birthday ceremony at the time of the violence.

The denial follows a chaotic incident on Tuesday in which suspected hoodlums stormed the party’s state secretariat during a stakeholders’ meeting convened ahead of the party’s ward congresses.

Ade Adetimehin, the APC caretaker chairman in Ondo State, was assaulted during the attack.

Witnesses said he was beaten and had his mobile phone seized, while other party leaders and stakeholders were forced to flee as the assailants wielded sticks, machetes and other weapons.

The disruption brought the crucial meeting to an abrupt end and threw the secretariat into confusion, heightening tensions within the party structure in the state.

In the immediate aftermath, Adetimehin accused members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) allegedly led by its state chairman, Ademola Odudu, of carrying out the assault on the governor’s orders.

Responding, Aiyedatiwa dismissed the claims as unfounded, maintaining that he had no involvement in the violence.

“At about 11am, I got a call from the party chairman that there was going to be a stakeholders’ meeting, which I approved,” the governor said.

He explained, however, that he advised the party leadership to reschedule the meeting to 2pm because he and other key stakeholders were attending the 50th birthday celebration of a cabinet member.

“But I told them it should be fixed for 2pm because I was attending the 50th birthday of one of our stakeholders who is a cabinet member,” he said.

Aiyedatiwa stressed that stakeholders’ meetings are typically held with his presence, alongside the Speaker of the State House of Assembly and the deputy governor, suggesting that it would have been unusual for him to sanction any disruption.

“Normally, we have stakeholders’ meetings and I am always in attendance, together with the speaker and the deputy governor. But this one was an impromptu meeting because of the ward and local government congresses,” he added.

Dismissing the allegation that he mobilised hoodlums, the governor attributed the disturbance to rival factions aligned with different aspirants within the party.

“You can see the way I am dressed. I was at the birthday of one of the stakeholders who was also supposed to be here. That was why we asked them to shift the meeting to 2pm,” he said.

Later in the evening, Aiyedatiwa led party leaders to the secretariat for a stakeholders’ meeting with members of the congress committees from the APC national secretariat.

The move was seen as an apparent effort to restore order and reassure party members amid the brewing crisis.

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