Ahead of the October 10 governorship election in Ondo state, a debate to be organised by Face The Voter Initiative among the major candidates in the election will today Sunday hold at the Dome Event centre in Akure, the state capital.
The Precision NG reports that that event will commence by 4pm and will be relayed on Radio and Television stations within Akure.
Some of the stations include OSRC TV, Orange 94.5 FM, Sunshine 96.5 FM, Breeze FM 91.9 FM, Positive 102.5 FM and other online media platforms.
The candidates expected at the debate are Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of the APC who is seeking re-election, Eyitayo Jegede of the PDP who is contesting for the second time after losing to Akeredolu in 2016.
Others are Oyeleye Fasua of the SDP who has been relatively silent during the campaigns and Agboola Ajayi of the ZLP. Ajayi is a new comer to the race though he was elected as deputy governor on a joint ticket with Akeredolu under the APC in 2016. They had since fallout politically.
During the debate, top on the agenda would be issues that have shaped the campaigns over two months ago when INEC lifted the ban on political campaigns.
One of the many issues likely to be raised at the debate is the N4.3bn ‘AlagbakaGate’ which was unearthed by the members of the state House of Assembly earlier this year.
The secret account was domiciled in a commercial bank in Akure for over a decade before it was unearthed.
Another issue is the allegation that was traded between Governor Akeredolu and his estranged deputy, Agboola Ajayi over their monthly security vote.
Akeredolu had alleged in a radio interview monitored in Akure by The Precision NG that his deputy, Agboola receives N13m per month, stating that he was perplexed he could move against him politically.
In a swift reaction, Agboola denied receiving N13m but stated that his take home per month was N12m. Agboola added that Akeredolu on the other hand takes per month N750m as security vote, N150m as imprest while his wife, Betty takes home a monthly pay of N15m and N11m from the women affairs ministry, adding that his Son, Babajide takes home N5m monthly.
Akeredolu and wife had since denied the allegation.
Another issue that will shape the debate is the hike in the tuition fees of the state owned Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko (AAUA) at the wake of the administration in 2018/2019 academic session.
Other issues are the salary arrears owe University and Polytechnic staff in the state, Health workers, Insecurity, Ondo Linyi Industrial hub, Proposed Port of Ondo, Bitumen Exploration among others.
The October 10 election will be contested by 17 political parties in the state. Though there have been talks of merger by the two opposition parties in the state, PDP and ZLP, it is not clear if such a deal would come to fruition before the election.
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