Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has sworn in the newly elected chairmen of the State’s 18 Local Government Area.
BusinessDay reports that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) swept all the chairmanship seats in all the 18 local government areas of the state as all others political parties didn’t secure a seat.
Governor Akeredolu while inaugurating the newly-elected chairmen on Monday in Akure, said the outcome of the election showed the wishes of the people of the state and charged the council bosses to ensure grassroots development.
The candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 18 Local Government Areas were declared winners of the last Saturday’s chairmanship election by ODIEC.
According to him, the election that produced the council chiefs was a success.
He said, “We have tried our best since the inception of this administration by making the people the central focus of all our policies. We have tried to keep all unscrupulous persons masquerading as servants of the people at bay. We have severed ties from those whose deeds and preferences stand against decency and are inimical to the well-being of the people,’ the Governor stated at the swearing-in ceremony.
“Our ambition has been shaped by the overriding interest of the State. We have never been under any illusion that governance will not pose its challenges considering the precarious state of the economy when we assumed office and the continued slide in the economic fortunes of the country.
“We have, however, remained undaunted and resolute in our resolve to abridge the yawning gap in the welfare of our people. We have taken steps which posterity will adjudge as prescient. We have succeeded, largely, in abridging the infrastructural deficit in spite of the acute paucity of funds.
“Workers and citizens have felt the direct and positive impact of governance. We will continue to strive to make the voice of the people count in all decisions taken on their behalf as we move into the second phase of our statutory mandate of service. The impressive turn-out in all the Local Government elections confirms that the partnership between the government and the people is an enduring one.
“The victories recorded at the polls must not be taken as a licence to embrace recklessness and wanton display of arrogance. Our administration will continue to discourage all attitudes which subordinate the interests of the generality of the people to parochial and selfish preferences. We are irrevocably committed to the welfare of the people.
“This promise to conduct an election into the third tier of government, actualised almost seamlessly, points at our readiness to take governance to the people at the grassroots through their elected representatives. The just-concluded exercise was not perfect, as there were reports of a few hiccups in some units and one or two.”
