Ailing Governor Rotimi Akeredolu has been receiving chemotherapy for the treatment of leukaemia (blood cancer), which knocks him out for 10 hours after every medication.
Scroll Nigeria exclusively reported in January that Akeredolu was suffering from leukaemia.
Leukaemia is a blood cancer caused by a rise in the number of white blood cells in the body.
The 67-year-old politician returned to Nigeria in September after a three-month medical leave in Germany but has been holed up in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Akeredolu has been under intense pressure from opposition parties to resign or hand over power to his deputy in line with the 1999 constitution but he has failed to resign.
Sources in Akeredolu’s family told SaharaReporters on Monday that the governor returned from Germany in September with a poor prognosis. “The governor is battling leukemia for which he is being treated with chemotherapy,” one of the sources said.
“The governor who returned from Germany after a prolonged stay was told his prognosis is bad and was asked to return to Nigeria where he has continued to receive chemotherapy.”
According to one of the sources, “each time the governor receives a shot of his chemical therapy, he is knocked out for at least 10 hours”.
“As a result, the governor is barely lucid throughout the day and night,” the source added.
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses powerful drugs or chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body.
Chemotherapy could, however, come with side effects that include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, hair loss, loss of appetite, fatigue, fever and mouth sores.
Patients could also have the following side effects: pain and constipation, easy bruising and bleeding.
Akeredolu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), won his re-election as the state governor in October 2020 and was sworn in for a second term in office in February 2021.
Scroll Nigeria exclusively reported on Sunday evening that President Bola Tinubu had summoned the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa and the State House of Assembly Speaker, Olamide Oladiji to Aso Villa in Abuja for an urgent meeting to be held today (Monday).
Sources told our correspondent that Tinubu would ask that the deputy governor should be allowed to act as governor, to resolve the leadership crisis in the state.
However, our correspondent learnt that the arrangement would not prevent a constitutional crisis as it would not require the ailing Governor Akeredolu to resign, even though he is ill and has been unable to perform the responsibilities required of his office for many months.
The call for the urgent meeting scheduled to be held on Monday comes after human rights activist and #RevolutionNow convener, Omoyele Sowore, announced the scheduling of a town hall meeting and mass protests for Saturday in Akure to call on the ailing Governor Akeredolu to either return to office or resign.
The emergency meeting will be the second one summoned by the President to resolve the leadership crisis in the state following the governor’s absence from office since July 2023.
The call for the meeting comes about two weeks after Tinubu met with over 50 persons including Aiyedatiwa, his and aides of Governor Akeredolu, state commissioners, party chieftains and some elders of the state on November 24.
“Tinubu has summoned the Ondo State Deputy Governor and the House Speaker to another urgent meeting after Sowore announced mass protests and town hall meeting in Akure,” one of the top sources privy to the invitation told our correspondent on Sunday.
“The emergency meeting is to be held in Aso Rock on Monday. It is aimed by Tinubu to ask the deputy governor to be allowed to act as governor.”
