Olusola Oke best for Ondo State, says Pan Yoruba groups
By Adeola Olubodun
For growth and sustainable development of Ondo State, Doctor Olusola Oke is the best, Pan Yoruba groups stated this position after a meeting held in Lagos on Tuesday.

Dr Oke according to the group is the only candidate in Ondo that has a "clear mind, a free conscience and a bright vision."

Representatives from Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC), Oodua Development Alternative, (ODA), Coalition of Oodua Nationalists, (CONA), Agbekoya and ten other groups were drawn from the seven South West states. The groups met under the aegis of Pan Yoruba Democratic Movement, (PAYDM).
The groups said the campaign to ensure the victory of Oke will be waged with “vigour, determination and unrelenting spirit.”
The group stated “First, we must realize that the Ondo State election is not a local affair. It is an election that affects the entire Yoruba nation. We have done a thorough analysis of the candidates. The three most outstanding candidates are Dr Olusola Oke, Rotimi Akeredolu and Mr Kayode Jegede. The last two listed candidates are fronts for certain anti-democracy interests opposed to the general aspirations of Ondo people”, the group stated in a communiqué signed by Mr Oluwole Suleiman and Akinola Omotoyinbo.
It said that the Ondo election is key to the unity and integration of the entire South West region for a stronger and united Pan-Yoruba family.
The group stated “Akeredolu has no passion to develop Ondo State. He has no blue print. He lost the election in 2011 and abandoned the state. He even lost his ward and nearly lost his own unit. No humiliation can be greater than that. All the battles waged against Mimiko saw Akeredolu running away from the state without taking a bold initiative. He views Ondo people with contempt and has no strong relationship with either our history nor our future. He has no single Ondo State person in his chambers. He is self centered, sly, deceitful and lacks the capacity to govern Ondo State.”
On Jegede, the group said the candidate has a personal and charming character, but that his major problem is that is he was brought up to cover the atrocities of the Mimiko administration committed against the people in the past eight years of ruin.
“In Ondo state, not less than 20 billion naira ended in private pockets in the past four years. The Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC) invested over 5 billion in Ondo State, but the contracts were usually awarded and the money shared as it is the practice under the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP). We cannot make progress unless we probe the past. A vote for Jegede is a vote for corruption, treachery and ineptitude. We do not want someone that will cover up and continue with the ruinous policies of the Mimiko administration”, the group stated. It said that Ondo state is the second richest Yoruba state after Lagos in terms of potentials. “Mimiko’s only achievement in 8 years is drumming the mother-and-child maternity slogan, a project that is not up to what a local government did in Lagos State.”
The group said that Akeredolu is Mimiko’s friend and that a vote for Akeredolu is an unconscious way of promoting mediocrity and sustaining a regime bereft of ideas but rich in a culture of treachery, betrayal of brotherhood and the people he is expected to govern.
The group warned against any plan to rig the Ondo State election adding that supporters of Akeredolu have been boasting that they do not need to campaign but will win the election because of "support from Fulani leaders" adding that any attempt to impose Akeredolu or Jegede on the people of Ondo State will be met with "unprecedented resistance." The group said it will embark on door-to-door campaign to mobilize the voters in the 18 local government areas of Ondo State so as to ensure the victory of Dr Oke saying that he is the only candidate with “a true heart, a clear conscience and a clean slate.”