The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has accused Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa as playing to the gallery over the national hunger protest in Nigeria.
It is record that Ondo State has not witnessed any protest since protesters took to the street on August 1, 2024.
Reports say the end bad governance protests that broke out across the country on Thursday, 1st August, 2024 have left misery, anguish and death in many cities.
As at the last count, more than 17 deaths have been recorded with hundreds in several health facilities receiving treatment with 24 hours curfew declared in Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Zamfara and Borno States due to the wanton destruction of public and private properties and lives in the course of the protests.
Kennedy Ikantu Peretei, Ondo State Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement on Saturday asserted the protests would have been averted if the President Bola Tinubu led All Progressives Congress (APC) government had been sensitive to the yearning and suffering of the people.
The party added that Mr Tinubu should be held responsible for the casualties, calamity and the attendant trauma occasioned by the protests.
The statement of the PDP further alleged that Governor Aiyedatiwa personally dished out cash inducements to some youths, Clergy men and others from the State Treasury in order to forestall protest at the State capital, Akure.
“He was later reported to have thanked the people of the State for not joining the protest. What a pity?
“There is no part of the country that needs the protest more than Ondo State in the face of an administration that has practically grounded the State in every ramification.
“Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa is yet to account for the N5 billion that the Federal Government released to all the States as palliatives in the wake of the uproar from Nigerians after the withdrawal of fuel subsidy. The monthly allocation from the Federation Account that averages N10 billion every month since December, 2023 have no impact on the State. Infact, the allocation for last month was N11 billion.
“The only visible project in the State is the renovation of the Government House, especially the perimeter fence which is reported to cost a whooping N1 billion. Are these not enough reasons for the citizens to protest till, Aiyedatiwa tells us where he has warehoused the people’s money?
“But Ondo State with her very sophisticated citizenry will not allow themselves to engage in a violent protest that will set the State backward and therefore decided to stay peacefully at home to protest the bad Governance they have experienced in the last nine years. Is it the Sit-at-home protest that Aiyedatiwa is celebrating as “not participating” in the protest? He should stop sunning himself in the vain glory to have thwarted a protest in Ondo State through his street credibility.
“Aiyedatiwa should stop playing to the gallery and use his remaining few months to touch lives of the citizens who are truly hungry and angry but based on their past and recent experiences preferred to remain at home as a kind of protest,” the PDP statement concluded.
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