Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa has come hard on the Ondo Representative in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Otito Atikase.
Atikase, in a post on his verified Facebook page, asked Governor Aiyedatiwa to call the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Kayode Ajulo, to order.
He was silent on his reasons but said he would not sit by and allow anybody to destroy the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to him: “With our unwavering commitment to the development and growth of this state and the party alike, some of us will not sit idly by and allow anybody to destroy our party and government, both at the federal and state levels. I won’t say more than this for now.”
But Aiyedatiwa said comments of Atikase undermined the principles of governance and the chain of authority.
Speaking through a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Strategic Communications, Allen Sowore, Aiyedatiwa said he was a member of the Advisory Committee of the NDDC.
According to the statement: “When a part-time board member of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) issues directives to an elected Governor—particularly the Governor of the very state he represents on the Commission—it is not only overreaching but deeply inappropriate”.
“It is sheer recklessness and an act of unpardonable insubordination for a government official to issue warnings to the Governor, as well as the office of the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of a state. Such actions undermine the principles of governance and the chain of authority.”
In his reaction to Atikase, Ajulo said: “I express my gratitude to the Ondo Representative in the NDDC for advice. You see, the governor, being the appointing and convening authority as well as the Chief Executive Officer of the state, possesses the power to hold his appointees accountable. I am one of them and I am of the opinion that he has been fulfilling this responsibility with great diligence to further the progress of the State.”
