{"id":1567,"date":"2026-02-22T19:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T19:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/?p=1567"},"modified":"2026-02-22T19:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T19:37:24","slug":"sunshine-state-showdown-ajulo-adedayo-lock-horns-over-ondos-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/?p=1567","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine State Showdown: Ajulo, Adedayo Lock Horns Over Ondo\u2019s Direction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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By Akindele Orimolade<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two prominent sons of Ondo State are dissecting unfolding events in the Sunshine State from sharply contrasting angles ; each insisting he stands firmly on facts and truth, not sentiment.
Dr. Kayode Ajulo, the state\u2019s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, is widely regarded as one of Ondo\u2019s rising political and legal stars. On the other side is Dr. Festus Adedayo, one of the state\u2019s brightest media exports, whose reputation for incisive commentary earned him an appointment as Special Adviser to a governor outside his geopolitical zone.
On Sunday, February 22, 2026, in his weekly column in the Nigerian Tribune, Nigeria\u2019s oldest surviving newspaper, Adedayo delivered a hard-hitting assessment of developments in his home state. He concluded that \u201cthe Aiyedatiwa years are appearing as the years of the locusts,\u201d urging citizens to be vigilant.
According to him, \u201cThe onus is on the people to guard their loins. Anybody angling to lead the state must be known to have resounding pedigree of commitment. No longer should vultures with talons soaked in blood and greed be ever allowed to mount the saddle of the Alagbaka Government House.\u201d
The column quickly drew a sharp response from the state\u2019s chief law officer. Ajulo, while acknowledging he harbours \u201ctremendous respect\u201d for Adedayo as a writer, dismissed the piece as straying far from journalism. He described it instead as \u201cintellectual terrorism,\u201d \u201ccyberbullying,\u201d and \u201ca deliberate cocktail of malicious lies\u201d laden with \u201cprecarious liabilities.\u201d
Though both men insist they are motivated by truth and public interest, their interpretations of the issues diverge significantly , with the Attorney General signaling the possibility of seeking a legal interpretation of the controversial article.
As the debate unfolds, it underscores a deeper conversation about governance, accountability, and free expression in Ondo State ; and whether the battle for the Sunshine State\u2019s narrative will be settled in the court of public opinion or a court of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are the two articles:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiyedatiwa\u2019s years of the locusts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Festus Adedayo<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Published by the Sunday Tribune, February 22, 2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until last week\u2019s bloody clash, governance in the Sunshine State of Ondo was the proverbial upholstery (timutimu) which shielded a generation of filth (egbin) from the glimpse of the world. The ward congress of the State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, which left two people dead and several others injured, brought out all the hidden muck. The bloodbath was attributed by many stakeholders to the State governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa\u2019s now well-known inordinate ambition to stay-put, in the lingo of Pidgin English speakers, for a third term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daring ones among the people of the state even claim that the disruption of a stakeholders meeting presided over by the state chairman, Ade Adetimehin, by political thugs said to be emissaries of the governor were part of his ploy to reincarnate the narration of General Sani Abacha\u2019s self-perpetuation in office. Raphael, Adetimehin\u2019s brother, was brutally attacked by the suspected political thugs at his ward in Idanre. He was said to have been shot and stabbed, in an operation in which the party chairman was thought to have been the one brutalized. Adetimehin senior, who is not in Aiyedatiwa\u2019s good books, was said to be the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Aiyedatiwa came into the saddle two years ago, having replaced late Rotimi Akeredolu, his boss, it has been sorrowful tale of retarded and arrested development for Ondo State. Recently, inhabitants of the state covered their faces in shame as government rolled out \u201ccelebration\u201d of what it said were its achievements in office. An ear-marked commissioning of road projects that Akeredolu had almost completed and ones that even a local government would be less proud to hoist for mention was all Aiyedatiwa could boast of in two years. They were Igoba, SIB Extension, Afunbiowo Housing Estate, Ayegunle Iwaro-Oka, and a couple of other roads. State-wide condemnation stampeded government into suddenly putting the commissioning under wraps. For an oil-producing state, Aiyedatiwa is disgracing Ondo State tremendously due to his gross incompetence and incapability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who accused previous governments in the state of failure to jump-start the state for it to compete with other states of the Southwest see Aiyedatiwa\u2019s fare as governor as intolerable and the limit. Of all of past governors of the state, Olusegun Agagu and Olusegun Mimiko are hoisted for their remarkable developmental strides. The situation now is such that, apart from tokenism, Ondo State is so backward developmentally, so much that it cannot stand shoulder to shoulder with any state in the west.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, is the fault in the people\u2019s star? Why are Ondo people always this unlucky? Yes, Aiyedatiwa is an accidental leader. It is why every people must ensure that spare tyres are not put forward as deputy governorship candidates. As proven now, situations could change and what was thought to be spare becomes the original. Ondo State\u2019s experience in this regard has been distressing. There is absolutely no new development that can be pointed to since the incumbent came into power, despite the billions of Naira accruals from IGR and federal allocations. The rumour in town is that the state\u2019s wealth is tethered in the pockets of SANs who are helping to process in court Aiyedatiwa\u2019s puerile arguments to reincarnate as Sani Abacha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the Aiyedatiwa years are appearing as the years of the locusts. The onus is on the people to guard their loins. Anybody angling to lead the state must be known to have resounding pedigree of commitment. No longer should vultures with talons soaked in blood and greed be ever allowed to mount the saddle of the Alagbaka Government House. As a writer-wayfarer friend of mine often says as signature tune of his Facebook narratives: This, too, is my 10 Kobo advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Ondo AG Fires Back with Measured Fury: Labels Festus Adedayo\u2019s Piece \u201cIntellectual Terrorism\u201d and \u201cCyberbullying\u201d Laden with \u201cMalicious Lies\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akure, Ondo State \u2013 February 23, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a rare and forceful public intervention, Dr Olukayode Ajulo, OON, SAN, Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice of Ondo State, has issued a blistering, intellectually rigorous rebuttal to veteran columnist Festus Adedayo\u2019s opinion article \u201cAiyedatiwa\u2019s Years of the Locusts,\u201d published February 22, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Attorney-General, who has long maintained a posture of restraint befitting his high office, explained that he had previously been constrained by the dignity and impartiality required of his position not to engage in public banter or respond to partisan commentary. However, he stated unequivocally that what he read from Adedayo\u2014whom he described as a writer for whom he harbours \u201ctremendous respect\u201d\u2014was not journalism as he knows it, but rather \u201cintellectual terrorism\u201d \u201ccyberbullying\u201d and \u201ca deliberate cocktail of malicious lies\u201d that carries \u201cprecarious liabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ajulo declared that the piece had crossed into territory that could no longer be ignored; \u201cWhen a decorated and senior writer descends into calling a democratically elected leader a \u2018vulture with talons soaked in blood and greed,\u2019 fabricates a \u2018third-term ambition\u2019 likened to Sani Abacha, and peddles the outrageous falsehood of \u2018retarded and arrested development\u2019 despite verifiable, monumental achievements, the line has been crossed from opinion into actionable libel per se. This should not be dignified with silence by every man of conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presenting what he termed an \u201cirrefutable dossier of facts and numbers,\u201d the AG dismantled the central claims of the article with forensic precision:<\/p>\n\n\n\n