SaharaReporters reported on Sunday that a pro-democracy organisation, Take-It-Back Movement will organise a town hall meeting in Akure on Saturday, December 16 to call on Governor Akeredolu to resume office or resign.
Nigeria's secret police, Department of State Services (DSS), has reportedly threatened the Deji of Akure kingdom, Oba Aladetoyinbo Ogunlade Aladelusi, Odundun II, not to release Akure Hall for a town meeting to demand that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu should return to work or resign from office.
SaharaReporters reported on Sunday that a pro-democracy organisation, Take-It-Back Movement will organise a town hall meeting in Akure on Saturday, December 16 to call on Governor Akeredolu to resume office or resign.
It will also mark the commencement of street protests to call for the resignation of the ailing governor who has not set foot in his state since July 2023.
However, human rights activist and candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, Omoyele Sowore, on Monday, said the DSS threatened Deji of Akure in his palace not to allow the use of Akure Hall for the meeting.
Sowore, convener of #RevolutionNow, in a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Sunday, disclosed that there would be a town hall meeting and beginning of street protests in Akure, the state capital and across the state on December 16, to demand Akeredolu's resignation.
In a tweet on Monday, Sowore revealed that the secret police had also told the monarch to refund the money deposited for the use of the hall.
He wrote: "Just received information that the lawless @OfficialDSSNG went to the Deji of Akure palace to threaten him not to allow us to use the Akure Hall venue scheduled for our Town hall Meeting on Saturday.
"They asked the monarch to refund my deposit, but I have told his emissary that we will go ahead and use the hall no matter what on Saturday. #AkeredoluMustResign NO GOING BACK!"
"That was the hypocritical @RotimiAkeredolu when he was the president of the @NigBarAssoc in 2010 speaking on the fate of late Umaru Yar’Adua when his family led by his wife, Turai was using Nigerian to play Russian roulette. Today, Aketi’s people are doing the same to Ondo state people. #AkeredoluMustResign #RevokutionNow," he had also noted.
According to a flyer announcing the event, the town hall meeting organised by the Take-It-Back Movement and themed ‘Akeredolu; Resume Or Resign,’ will be held by noon on Saturday, December 16, 2023, at Akure Town Hall on Oba Adeside Road in Akure.
Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), won his re-election as the state governor in October 2020 and was sworn in for a second term in office in February 2021.
However, the governor’s second term, since January 2023, has not been smooth sailing as he had to be flown abroad for treatment over a medical condition.
SaharaReporters exclusively reported in January that Akeredolu was suffering from leukemia.
“The governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu has leukemia, he is really down,” one of the sources in the Alagbaka Government House revealed at that time.
Leukemia is a blood cancer caused by a rise in the number of white blood cells in the body.
Meanwhile, the family have been keeping his health status hush-hush to maintain their grip on the affairs of the state.
In November 2021, Akeredolu appointed his son, Babajide as the Director General of the Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit, Office of the Governor of Ondo State (PPIMU), courting controversy.
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 his aides have defended his action or inaction, saying he could govern the state from anywhere.
SaharaReporters on Friday exclusively reported that a forensic report by the Association of Forensic Professionals of Nigeria (AFPON) had confirmed that the ailing governor’s signature was forged on an official document.
Meanwhile, there are indications that there may be more of such forgeries.