• 37 days to Ondo guber poll, political parties yet to begin campaigns
• Three political parties fail to submit agents for polling, collation levels

Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has sacked his Special Assistant on Forestry (Central Senatorial District), Adeboye Taofiq Ewenla, over N30 million bribery allegations levelled against him.

Aiyedatiwa, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Ebenezer Adeniyan, while stating that the dismissal takes immediate effect, ordered that a probe be conducted into the allegation.

Ewenla, had in a leaked audio, demanded N30 million from timber traders operating in the state with a threat that failure to pay the amount would lead to their expulsion from the forest reserves.

The timber traders, infuriated by the demand of the governor’s aide, vowed to protest following an alleged claim by Ewenla that he was acting on Aiyedatiwa’s order.

The traders, who were said to have expressed disbelief at the demand of Ewenla, said that such an amount was unrealistic, as their profits do not reach that level in a year, with a member of the timber traders’ union, who spoke under anonymity, describing the demand as “criminal and oppressive.

“We are struggling to survive under harsh policies, and now they want to extort us with outrageous demands,” they said.

Meanwhile, Aiyedatiwa, who disclosed that Ewenla would soon be replaced, said that the activities of everyone manning the forest reserves across the state would be looked into.

Meanwhile, with 37 days to the forthcoming off-cycle governorship election in Ondo State, political activities as per voters’ engagement and campaigns by political parties remain subdued in the state.

The development has become worrisome among the electorate as well as in some political quarters of the state despite the nod by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) approving political parties to commence campaign activities since June 19, 2024.

According to findings by The Guardian, none of the 17 political parties have yet to hit the ground running with the non-release of their campaign timetable, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been the only party that had constituted a campaign council with Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, as chairman.

A political analyst in the state, Kunle Fatukasi, who described the situation as troubling, said that the move depicted an inclination towards vote-buying rather than genuine engagement with the electorate.

However, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state, Kennedy Peretei, said that the party had embarked on a one-on-one campaign across the state.The Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alex Kalejaye, said: “The party’s campaign committee’s list is ready, and we are flagging off our campaign very soon, most likely this weekend.”

Meanwhile, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Oluwatoyin Babalola, had said that the commission would tackle the menace of vote-buying, stressing that anti-graft agencies are poised to curb the trend in the oncoming poll.

She said: “After the closure of the portal for the upload of polling and collation agents for the Ondo State governorship election, out of 74,790 expected agents, the political parties contesting in the election only uploaded 24,148 agents to the portal, indicating that only 32.3 per cent of the expected agents were nominated on the portal. Three political parties have no agents at all levels of polling and collation.”