The nation's capital's Independent National Electoral Commission Secretariat has been requested to be renamed in honor of the late Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, the governor of Ondo State, by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.While expressing sympathy to the good people of Ondo State on the passing of their governor, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) stated that the late governor will always be remembered as a hero of democracy and equality.
In a similar spirit, the group warned Nigerian politicians holding different colored public positions not to unleash misfortune, corruption, and misgovernance on the populace while taking a philosophical lesson from the earthly departure of the judicial giant.
HURIWA stated that the late governor of Ondo State will be remembered as a symbol of democracy who devoted his life to ensuring that power returned to the South, despite the strangely bad and poisonous politics orchestrated by his supporters, who thwarted the execution of the constitutional process of handing over power to the deputy governor at the time.
Huriwa went on to say that the late governor of Ondo State's close political allies and family members mishandled the political climate prior to his physical departure by hiding his actual health issues and by orchestrating the failure to transfer power to Mr. Goodluck Aiyedetiwa, the deputy governor, in a way that nearly brought about a breakdown of law and order in the state.
According to the group, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's unlawful intervention was necessary before the right procedure could be followed to appoint the then-Deputy Governor of Akeredolu to serve as governor while the late governor attended to his health issues.
As politicians must accept their individual and collective responsibility to uphold the rule of law and the tenets and provisions of the constitution, HURIWA wants the Nigerian political class to learn the important and constructive lesson that nothing, including positions, lasts forever. The rights group has also asked the new governor of Ondo State to establish an investigative commission to determine the truthfulness of the widespread allegations that some individuals connected to the late governor forged his signature and embezzled enormous sums of state funds for which they never provided an account.
"HURIWA noted that late Akeredolu, who attended Aquinas College in Akure and Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, passed away on Wednesday following a protracted illness shortly after his birth on July 21, 1956.
From 1997 to 1999, he served as Ondo State's attorney general.
In 1998, he was appointed as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). From 2008 to 2010, Akeredolu presided over the Nigeria Bar Association.