There are indications that Ondo State Deputy Governor Agboola Ajayi may be pressured to tender his resignation letter this week.
Ajayi, the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), lost his bid to govern the state after he emerged a distant third in the October 10 governorship election.
He resigned from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in June, joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but failed to clinch the party’s ticket before moving to the ZLP.
The pressure on Ajayi to resign, according to some of his allies in the House of Assembly and ZLP, is to prevent what they termed unnecessary impeachment brouhaha.
Some of the sources said Ajayi might turn in his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the Assembly before the end of this week.
It was gathered that top notch friends of Ajayi, including a northern governor, was reached to advise him accordingly to resign.
A top Ondo government official confirmed to our reporter that aggressive steps will be taken to ensure Ajayi is impeached if he fails to tender his resignation letter.
The official said Ajayi’s allies in the Assembly were already caving in to sign the impeachment notice.
According to an ally of Ajayi, “from all we have seen, the game has ended and there is no way anyone can continue the fight; we have reached the end of the road as far as this governorship issue is concerned.
“We have had a review of the circumstances of our performance and honestly, our conclusion was that we undermined Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and overrated our candidate’s capacity to raise funds and mobilise resources for the battle.
“The most worrisome was not just the result from the Ondo South, but his own local government where he was roundly embarrassed.
“Prior to the election, we were assured by our candidate and even our national leader that is Dr. Olusegun Mimiko. He (Mimiko) was confident based on the assurances from Ajayi that there were more than enough resources for the battle.
“But we became very uncomfortable when on Wednesday; our candidate began to develop clay foot upon enquiries from Mimiko to raise some funds for the immediate days preceding the election.
“From all indications, Mimiko is unhappy because he was deceived into the project to fight his long-time friend and you know the implications of such a risk.
“Those of us who are close to the deputy governor have advised him to honourably resign before he is disgraced because we foresee a forceful removal and you guys know how brutal Akeredolu can be when he fights. The man may no longer enjoy any public sympathy.
“We reached out to some of the deputy governor’s friends, including his northern governor friend and persons of goodwill have advised him accordingly that he should resign.
“We wanted to play a card and prove a point with his presence as a sitting deputy governor running against the governor and defeating him, but all that is of no effect any longer. So there is no point heating up the polity.”
