By Jubril Bada
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Senator representing Ondo Central Senatorial District and candidate of APC in this Saturday’s general election, Chief Tayo Alasoadura has denied the allegations that Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu is sponsoring candidates from other political parties
Just as Alasoadura boasted that he will defeat his two major challengers in the forthcoming general election because of his unprecedented achievements as a first term senator, he also expressed confidence that APC candidates will win all elections.
The Senator mentioned that the former governor, Olusegun Mimiko of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and Senator Ayo Akinyelure of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), could not stop APC from recording victory in the senatorial district like it was in 2015 elections.
The APC Senator who is the Senate Committee Chairman on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) spoke in Akure during a media parley
He said during the 2015 general elections, when Mimiko and AKinyelure were incumbent governor and senator under PDP he defeated both with massive votes of the people.
His words: “Although if am contesting against only PDP, I would have been sleeping by now because I know victory is sure and I have performed very well, but when you have a former governor of your state interested in your seat, you have to work harder to record victory”.
Alasoadura noted that, “Rahman Mimiko has not won any election in Ondo state except in 2012 governorship election when he used the state resources and power of incumbency to get second term; it was an abracadabra court’s judgement that brought him to office as governor, he didn’t win then”.
He listed his greatest achievements to include the sponsoring of a bill on the upgrading of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo to Adeyemi Federal University of Education; lobbied the federal government to include Akure and Ondo among areas that would benefit from Railway project from Lagos to Calabar as well as sponsoring and ensuring the passage of Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB).
The Senator explained that the bill for the college conversion to a University had been passed into law nine months ago, noting that a sum of N2billion had been set aside in the federal government’s budget for the take off of the University .
“My greatest joy is that the rail project of the federal government that supposed to go from Lagos to Ore- Benin to Calabar, after several lobbying and consultations with Mr President (Muhammadu Buhari), Minister of Transport, Senate Committee on Land Transportation and other stakeholders, am very happy that the railway project will now include four of six local government areas in my district”.
Alasoadura said, “Akure, Ondo will now benefit from the project, the rail project will now be from Lagos to Ore to Ondo to Akure to Owo to Benin to Calabar. Ondo west, Ondo East, Akure South and Akure north (local government areas) will benefit, this is my greatest achievement because it will boost economy of our people and the state”
On the internal crisis that led to some APC chieftains picking tickets of the Action Alliance (AA) in the state, the lawmaker said he didn’t believe that governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu could sponsor candidates in opposition party as being alleged in some quarters and expressed confidence that all APC candidates for 2019 polls including Buhari would win the elections.
On the agitation for restructuring of the country, Alasoadura said he would only support devolution of powers to states and granting of local government administrative and financial autonomy for even and rapid development across the federation.