By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
Front line governorship aspirant on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Eyitayo Jegede has accused Gov. Rotimi Akeredolu, the incumbent governor of the state of running education aground through an unprecedented 500 percent hike in tuition fees of state institutions.
Jegede made the allegations in Abuja recently when he picked his governorship nomination and expression of interest forms at the party’s national headquarters in Abuja.
The aspirant who was accompanied by a litany of friends and associates said that he has a pact with the people of the state which is for economic transformation, youth empowerment, provision of affordable health care delivery, as well as reduction in the cost of education in the state.
He said, “Our students have dropped out of school. You can go and check how much that is being paid as tuition fee in our universities. The first thing the APC government did when they came into power was to increase the fees in all the institutions almost by 500%. In effect a good number of our students dropped out of school.
“You can also go and check our hospitals, people are dying by the day because they cannot pay medical bills and those who collect medical bills collect commission on the medical bills because they say that it is IGR. That shouldn’t happen. These are the kind of things we want to do differently”.
He disclosed that what has sustained his several unsuccessful attempts to be the chief executive of the state was his desire to make the people own their government.
“We have an unfinished business and that business is to retrieve power and put it in the hands of the people of Ondo state. We have to open and give access to our teaming youths who are the prospective students in our universities, a lot of them have dropped out of school because of the collapse of the education system in Ondo state especially the imposition of a humongous amount as tuition fees.
“We intend to also give access to our people to access medical care, for the youth, for the young and for women especially pregnant women,” he stated.
He went further to say that he has remained in the PDP because politics ought to be played with some level of integrity.
“There must be integrity in politics. We are consistent and because we want to serve the people,the people will decide. There is no point in jumping from one political party to the other. You must ensure that you stay there and build the party. The PDP is a very great party, the largest party in Africa, the only party that can provide broad based access to power for the service of the people”.
The aspirant expressed confidence that he will be victorious at the primary election scheduled to hold in July as well as in the governorship election in November.
