Ondo state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, aged 67, died on Wednesday morning after a prolonged health battle.
A top government source confirmed the unfortunate development, Channels TV reported.
Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), ex-president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and ex-Attorney General of Ondo State, was a second-term governor before his death.
He was first elected governor of Ondo State in 2016.
Bamidele Olateju, Akeredolu’s cabinet member and Commissioner for Information and Orientation, had recently described the deceased governor’s ailment as “somatic” during a TV interview.
Chronicle NG reported that he recently returned to Germany for further medical attention and handed over the affairs of the state to his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who is currently the acting governor.
Many of his contemporaries recognized Aketi, as friends and admirers affectionately called him, as a tenacious leader with unwavering personal convictions. Until his death, he was the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum, a body with governors of the 17 states in southern Nigeria as members.
Akeredolu also led his other five colleagues in the South-West as chairman, championing many reforms, especially in the area of security, the most prominent of which was the establishment of the South-West Security Network, codenamed Amotekun.
Aketi was unpretentious, unpatronizing, and vocal against injustice, oppression, and subjugation of all kinds. He was a voice against herdsmen attacks on farmers and one of the unswerving critics of the administration of then President Muhammadu Buhari, despite the fact that they belonged to the same ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Fearless, Aketi stood for his deepest convictions and didn’t mind walking alone, far away from the bandwagon. Akeredolu went for the jugular of the Federal Government, always siding with the people and holding the Federal Government to account for its core responsibility of protecting the people, especially during an attack on a Catholic church in Owo, his hometown.
Akeredolu was an advocate of state police and restructuring, two agendas he trumpeted till he breathed his last.
Akeredolu won his re-election as Ondo State governor in October 2020 and was sworn in for a second term in office in February 2021. However, his second term was marred with controversies amid health battles.
