On one occasion on December 8, 2009, Akeredolu said, “The prayer of the association is that the President should recover fast, return to his office, and resign.
In 2009, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State asked the then-President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to resign as he could no longer perform his functions.
Akeredolu, then President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) repeatedly called on the late President to resign due to his ill health and allow his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan to take over.
Yar’Adua and Jonathan were elected as president and vice president in 2007.
He frequently fell ill and eventually died in May 2010.
On one occasion on December 8, 2009, Akeredolu said, “The prayer of the association is that the President should recover fast, return to his office, and resign.
“No matter how much you love your country, it should not be at the detriment of your health. It is not your party or your wife that will decide whether you are capable of handling state matters; it is only your doctors that can decide that. The bar is not asking the president not to come back and take his seat, but the right thing must be done.”
"We cannot see him (Yar'Adua), we don't know where he is and don't even know what he is doing," Akeredolu told Reuters in a report published on January 5, 2010.
"All we are asking is that the vice president be sworn-in as acting president."
But Akeredolu, who now faces a similar health challenge as Yar’Adua, seems to love Ondo more than himself.
He was last seen in an official capacity on May 17, 2023, when he played host to the Ondo State Cocoa Council delegation led by its chairman, Dr. Olusegun Awolumate, at the Governor’s Office, Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital.
Since then, Akeredolu has been conspicuously missing at public events, a situation that has further raised eyebrows among Nigerians who have expressed concerns about the governor’s health status.
On Monday, SaharaReporters reported how the first lady of Ondo State, Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu and her son, Babajide have kept the governor in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, against his wishes.
He is said to be receiving chemotherapy for the treatment of leukaemia (blood cancer).
Sources had told SaharaReporters that the medication knocks the governor out for 10 hours each time and that he is barely lucid during the day or at night.
SaharaReporters further learnt that at a time when the governor was lucid enough, he requested his family to take him to Owo, his hometown in Ondo State, saying he preferred to die there. However, sources said his family, led by Betty and Babajide shunned the helpless governor’s request over fear that his true state of health would come to light.
According to sources, they are afraid that such a scenario will limit their grip on power as the defacto leaders of the state.
“When the governor was lucid enough, he requested that his family return him to his Owo home and said he’d prefer to die there but his family, led by his son and wife refused to transfer him fearing his real condition would be leaked by untrustworthy family members and aides.
“The governor was recently in Lagos where he received some treatment before being taken to Ibadan in Oyo State,” one of the family sources said.
SaharaReporters exclusively reported in January that Akeredolu was suffering from leukaemia.
Leukaemia is a blood cancer caused by a rise in the number of white blood cells in the body.
The 67-year-old politician returned to Nigeria in September after a three-month medical leave in Germany but has been holed up in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Akeredolu has been under intense pressure from opposition parties to resign or hand over power to his deputy in line with the 1999 constitution but he has failed to resign.
Meanwhile, the family has been keeping the governor’s health status hush-hush to maintain their grip on the affairs of the state.
Akeredolu won his re-election as the state governor in October 2020 and was sworn in for a second term in office in February 2021.
SaharaReporters exclusively reported on Sunday evening that President Bola Tinubu had summoned the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the State House of Assembly Speaker, Olamide Oladiji to Aso Villa in Abuja for an urgent meeting to be held today (Monday).
Last Friday, SaharaReporters reported that a forensic report by the Association of Forensic Professionals of Nigeria (AFPON) had confirmed that Akeredolu’s signature was forged on an official document.
There are indications that there may be more of such forgeries.
SaharaReporters got the forensic report on Friday, signed by Mr Nuhu Kutana Tanko, who stated that “there are strong indications the author of known specimen handwritings/signatures on known documents marked ‘K-K4’ did not write the questioned signatures on questioned documents marked ‘Q-Q2.’”
The investigation was initiated by the State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Razaq Obe, who wrote to the Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, confirming the forgery of Akeredolu’s signature on an official document relating to his ministry.