Ondo 2024: Group Tips Pro-Tinubu Activist, Charles Oludare for Aiyedatiwa’s Running Mate
Fidelis David in Akure
A pan-All Progressives Congress (APC) socio-political organisation- Social Rehabilitation Group (SRG), have called on the party to back the aspiration of its National Convener, Dr Charles Oludare Marindoti to be the running mate to Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, in the November 16 governorship election.
The SRG, in a statement by its Southwest Coordinator, Demola Obadofin, averred that contributions made toward the campaigns of President Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election and to the triumph of Aiyedatiwa over forces plotting to impeach him as deputy governor last year, were overwhelming.
“While Dr Charles Marindoti Oludare, best known by his middle known, Marindoti, is a personality who believes in spending his personal resources to pursue the attainment of his people-oriented objectives and programmes, most of the other people in politics these days believe in siphoning public funds to pursue personal objectives.
“Recall that as a medic in the United States, Marindoti heard then presidential aspirant, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, express frustration with people maligning him on the social media, on platforms that did not provide him with a right of reply, he got moved and took leave of absence from his work place in the US, relocated to Nigeria to undertake intensive media campaigns for Tinubu, at no cost to anyone,” Obadofin said.
The SRG helmsman stressed that it is better for the governor to choose a young and vibrant person like Marindoti from the North District of the part of Akokoland that has never gotten that far, “because, the Central Zone, most likely Akure, is expected to get the Governor zoning next.
“If the Governor chooses from the Central, that person might see himself as the next Governor and start treating Mr Governor as a lame duck governor leading to unbearable insubordination and legislative connivance that will make Mr Governor’s tenure untenable.
“But if he chooses a young and vibrant person like Marindoti, he’ll be able to avoid the Ajasin vs Omoboriowo, Mimiko vs Olanusi , Akeredolu vs Agoola debacle of their respective era, since the young medic is not a politician and doesn’t have a gubernatorial ambition,” Obadofin canvassed.
He added that Marindoti, an Oka-Akoko by nativity but who was born and bred in Akure, the state capital, also became concerned, when some selfish politicians moved to impeach Aiyedatiwa as deputy governor, when his boss, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, was seriously sick and spent many months in a German hospital.
“Worried that Aiyedatiwa was not allowed to act as governor in the absence of his boss, and that Akeredolu was medically coerced as some political hawks were forging his signature to award contracts and siphon public funds, Marindoti wrote a strongly worded petition to the Attorney-General of the Federation, calling for his intervention.”
Obadofin stated that Marindoti, apart from writing a similar letter to the House of Representatives to come to the aid of Aiyedatiwa when some elements in the House of Assembly were rooting for his impeachment with no clear-cut allegation, also sponsored and granted so many interviews on television and radio stations, for same cause.
“In terms of prevailing zoning arrangement in the state too, Marindoti has come in the right stead, in that, coming from Oka-Akoko, a politically marginalised part of Ondo North senatorial district, he also grew up in Akure, the state capital, which is in the Central District and where he enjoys a large following through his group, the SRG.
“Thus, he is a brdge between two senatorial districts and his SRG is very active in each of the 18 local government areas, where there is a Coordinator fully in charge,”.
Obadofin assured that Marindoti, a 35-year-old, as a young and vibrant politician with rich profile in the medical world, would enrich the Aiyedatiwa administration wondrously, if jointly voted for a tenure of four years.
