Ondo State governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has expressed willingness to contest governorship on November 16. 

Mr Aiyedatiwa, who became governor after the demise of his principal, said he would throw his hat in the ring as required by the constitution of the country.

“Definitely, I will be running because I am already a sitting governor and Let me say this nobody wants to be governor for one year.  Common! Give me what the Constitution allows me to do. At least, Let me have the chance of also running for one more time,” he said on a news programme on TVC News on Friday.  

Mr Aiyedatiwa became governor on December 27 last year following Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s death at a German hospital after battling prostate cancer.  

A former deputy governor to the late Akeredolu, Mr Aiyedatiwa was later sworn as governor by the state Chief Judge, Olawale Odunsola, to fill the vacuum created by his principal’s death  and complete the one-year remaining to end the administration’s  two-term.  

Speaking on his relationship with the former governor before his death, Mr Aiyedatiwa denied having a crisis with the late Akeredolu.

He explained that a few individuals in the state driven by political ambition caused a crisis in the state last year.

”Let me put this straight for the record, I never had issues with the former principal, there was no time we had a face-off, there was no time we had an issue that will demand that I have to make up with him.

”All that was being pushed out at a time were basically political, there were falsehoods and insinuations because the election was coming and they knew the governor was so sick and a lot of things were at play. 

“There was no time I had an issue that I needed to resolve with him in terms of crisis. All that you saw at the time was basically political. It was driven by the ambition of few people who knew there was going to be transition in the state and I was advantaged as the deputy,” he added.

However, his declaration is coming ahead of the governorship primaries of the All Progressives Congress in the state fixed for April. 

Aside from the incumbent governor, about 15 governorship aspirants in the ruling party have shown interest in the governorship race.

They include the immediate past Commissioner for Finance; Wale Akinteriwa, Secretary to the State Government, Oladunni Odu; a former member of the House of Representatives, Mayowa Akinfolarin and a former representative of the state on the board of the NDDC; Olugbenga Edema.

Others include a former director of finance at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Olumide Ohunyeye;  business mogul and incumbent Senator representing Ondo South, Jimoh Ibrahim;   former governorship candidate, Olusola Oke APC National Vice chairman (South-West), ; Isaacs Kekemeke ; Executive director at the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited, Ifeoluwa Oyedele

Also included are erstwhile President of the Nigeria Medical Association, Adedayo Faduyile; former governorship aspirant,  Paul Akintelure;  a member of the House Representative from Okitipupa federal constituency,Jimi Odimayo; former governorship aspirant, Olusola Iji and businesswoman and entrepreneur, Funmilayo Adekojo among several others.

Of the aspirants in the APC, only Ms Adekojo is the only female contender ready to slug out the party’s ticket with other male aspirants.