Ondo will not be part of the sovereign Yoruba State being agitated for by some groups, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has declared, describing it as a call to assured destruction.

He made the declaration on Monday in Akure. 

Mr Akeredolu disclosed this while swearing in Oladunni Odu as the new Secretary to the State Government and other special advisers in Akure.

“Our people are knowledgeable enough to determine their interest at any point. If and when they consider self-determination as an option, they will not depend on external promptings to act.

“That is why we are different. That is why we are who we are,” said the governor.

The governor added the state would not subscribe to banditry and recklessness in putting forth its demands.

According to him, Ondo people elected to stay in Nigeria as constituted at present, pointing out that no part of the state will permit any gathering or agitation, which may suggest that the people are in support of what he termed “unthinking rabble-rousing.”

“We will not be led to assured annihilation by anyone or a group of people, still smarting from the electoral defeats of recent times and presumed exclusion from the process of decision-making,” Mr Akeredolu stressed.

His assertion alluded to ‘mutually assured destruction (MAD),’ a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender.

The governor argued that citizens’ right to discuss, agitate and even fight to right perceived wrongs, culminating in self-determination, must be done within known and acceptable parameters.

Mr Akeredolu stated that all concerned must agree to pursue the same objectives to achieve a desirable or desired end.

He vowed to continue to eject and punish all trespassers occupying forest reserves to rid the state of undesirable elements.

He noted that anyone who intended to engage in a private business of animal husbandry in the state must be ready to abide by the modern methods or quit.

He explained that his administration opted to participate in the Federal Government National Livestock Transformation Programme because it aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship in modern cattle breeding for profit.

(NAN)