The immediate past government in Ondo State led by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko said it left N20 billion in the state coffers, refuting allegations by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that it inherited N150 billion debt.
It said the claim by the APC spokesperson, Mr. Abayomi Adesanya, that the new government met a debt profile of N150b, “is a lie from the pit of hell.”
It advised the APC to face the business of governance instead of indulging in cheap blackmail that won’t justify its mandate. The Commissioner for Information in the last administration, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, reacting to the debt profile claim in Akure yesterday, said the Mimiko administration which did not enter into any contractual obligation to warrant any increase in the external debt inherited by it when it assumed office eight years ago, was able to reduce the debt profile to $49.9 million.
He said Adesanya is obviously intimidated by the performance record of the past government and will rather continue with his pre-election falsehood and lie-selling to seek attention, than live with the reality.
Akinmade explained that the foreign debt were overseas contracted obligations initiated by the two previous governments before the immediate past one.
He put the domestic debts incurred by the last administration at about N53 billion with salary arrears of about N20 billion, submitting however that the Mimiko-led government left over N20 billion in the state’s coffers for the APC government.
Footballers employed by the Ondo State Football Agency protested non-payment of seven months salaries at the governor’s office on Wednesday.
Mr. Mimiko was holding a meeting with members of his cabinet when the protesters came, blocking the entrance of the complex with their vehicles.
The male and female footballers, Sunshine Stars and Sunshine Queens, complained that the staff of the agency were owed 14 months salaries while the players have not been paid for seven months.
According to one of the players, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES, the state had also failed to pay the sign-on fees of the player, which ought to have been paid this February.
He said officials of the football agency complained that payment of any kind was becoming difficult because the Accountant General of the state had been “missing” and there was no one to sign the papers for the release of the funds.
The players expressed fears that with just one day to the end of the Mimiko administration, their monies may not be paid after all.
They became more restive when the governor or any of the commissioners refused to address them.
Police officers who were drafted to handle the situation fired teargas to disperse the protesters.
Two female players passed out in the process and were rushed to a nearby hospital due to the intensity of the gas.
“They have decided to shoot us, let them throw teargas and bullets, we have not been paid and we will not leave here today,” a player cried out from the crowd.
Some of the players who were further angered by the action of the police, assailed the mobile police officers resulting in shoving and pushing between them.
The police area commander, O.I. Durosimi, pleaded with the players, who returned to their barricade, to calm down as they had registered their grievances and further aggression could result in harm.
The Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Femi Adekanbi, later tried to persuade the players to stay off the entrance in order to keep them from attacking the convoy of the governor when going out.
He promised that the government would take their case up and ensure they were paid.
The players listened to the commissioner and moved across the road facing the gate, but insisted they would remain there until the governor took action to resolve the problem.
At the time of filing this report, the governor and the commissioners were still held up in the governor’s office, while the players laid siege.
Labour unions in Ondo State on Monday urged the state’s Accountant-General, Laolu Akindolire, to stop further release of funds to the government of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, whose tenure expires on Friday this week.
The letter, addressed to the Accountant-General, was signed by the chairman of the Joint Negotiating Council, JNC, Sunday Adeleye, his Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, counterpart, Bosede Daramola, as well as the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Soladoye Ekundayo.
The unions alleged that they had information that the outgoing government was making efforts to mop up funds in the account of the state government for “frivolous projects”, before the end of its tenure.
The unions warned Mr. Akindolire not to abuse his office in approving money other than the payment of workers’ salaries.
Officials told PREMIUM TIMES that the Accountant-General had become evasive and had not been to his office to avoid influx of financial requests.
As a result, the N150 million requested by the outgoing administration to organise the inauguration ceremony has not been processed and is stuck in the Accountant-General’s office.
It was also gathered that efforts to reach Mr. Akindolire on his mobile phones had been impossible.
Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, in his response, said the projects completed by contractors needed to be paid only from funds earmarked for capital projects.
“There is a difference between funds meant for recurrent and those for capital expenditure,” he explained. “You cannot take recurrent funds and use it for capital projects.”
He argued that if a contractor has his certificates of a completed projects, he should be paid, even though salaries have not been paid, because the monies for the payment of salaries are different from those meant for contractors.
On the absconding of the Accountant General, Mr. Akinmade noted that in a transition, there was bound to be some strange movements in a bid to curry the attention of the incoming government.
“This is not unusual in a transition like this, where you see people trying to shift loyalty so that they would be favoured by the incoming government,” he said.
“But we should not play politics with the lives and well-being of the people,” he said.
He noted that Governor Mimiko would not do anything against the interest of the people and in breach of the fiscal responsibility laws of the land.
He had earlier told PREMIUM TIMES that it was legal for the administration to continue to spend funds from the state’s coffers for the next six months even without an extant budget, provided the spending did not exceed the prescribed amount for the period.
Retirees at the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo (RUGIPO) in Ondo State have asked the outgoing Governor Olusegun Mimiko to offset their outstanding pension arrears before the handing over of his administration to a new government.
The retirees claimed that Mr. Mimiko’s outgoing government owed them an accumulated pension arrears of over N912,727,324.85 which have not been paid since December 31, 2016.
They made the demand for the payment of their entitlements in a press statement issued shortly after their annual general meeting held inside the institution’s campus at the weekend.
The statement was signed by their Chairman, Rufus Oguntoyinbo, and General Secretary, Steven Olufawoye, and was obtained by SaharaReporters in Akure on Sunday.
The pensioners, in the statement, disclosed how they had been suffering and undergoing hardship due to the outgoing government’s refusal to pay their salaries and pensions.
They lamented and explained how a fellow pensioner suddenly died on his sick bed as he could not raise the small sum of N500 to buy his regular prescribed medicine.
The retirees also stated that no fewer than fifty-seven of their colleagues, who had been a part of the struggle since 2006, had died mysteriously without receiving their arrears and wages.
They specifically blamed the outgoing governor, who will hand over the government on Thursday, for their predicament, stating that all the promises made by Mr. Mimiko to offset the debt were not fulfilled.
The aggrieved pensioners also fingered the immediate past Rector of the Rufus Giwa Poly, Igbekele Ajibefun, of being responsible for their misfortune.
They accused Mr. Ajibefun of not implementing a report of the State House of Assembly directing the institution to pay the outstanding arrears of the retirees.
“The Assembly directed that the management of the polytechnic should pay retirees the arrears of pension and gratuity as from 2006 to date.
“That management of the institution should commence the full payment of pensions to all retirees in accordance with enhanced salaries from 2001 to date.
“The financial implication of placing the affected pensioners on the enhanced pension increase rate is about N600,000 per month; which we expect management to add to the monthly wage bill.
“Ajibefun, who could not afford to release that amount to the monthly pension of some retirees, autocratically collected ?N49,600,000 as his gratuity at the end of his four years in office at the polytechnic.
“We are making the whole world, especially the incoming administration in Ondo State, know the predicaments of the retirees of the State Polytechnic,” the statement read in part.
Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko has denied betraying National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and two former governors of Ondo State, the late Adebayo Adefarati and the late Olusegun Agagu.
He revealed this in his yet-to-be presented book ‘Mimiko’s Odyssey: A Biographer of Revelations’ which was released by Punch.
Mimiko also narrated how he was threatened by former President Olusegun Obasanjo
He said, “You don’t know the situation I was in then. Look, you don’t know Obasanjo. I worked with him. In history, go and check it out. There are not too many people who were able to resign from Obasanjo’s government.
“In fact, you can’t do it. Sir, you can’t just do it. I did not only resign, when I came to the Federal Executive Council after resignation, everybody thought they were seeing a ghost.
“Obasanjo hounded me out of Abuja, virtually. We came out with a new party.
“Anybody that gave N1m then, you can’t imagine how we would celebrate him or her. Four months to election, we were raising money in hundreds of thousands: N100,000; N50,000; N20,000
The crisis rocking the Ondo state house of assembly took a new dimension on Thursday as some protesters attacked the convoy of Olusegun Mimiko, outgoing governor, in Akure, the state capital.
Suspected hoodlums smashed the side screens of two vehicles in the governor’s convoy.
It took the timely intervention of the men of the state police command to disperse the protesters, some of whom were also injured in the pandemonium.
The protest, which started on Wednesday, was against the governor’s move to present the 2017 budget to the assembly.
Following the protest, Mimiko reportedly shifted the budget presentation to another day.
The protesters alleged that the governor wanted to sponsor 38 bills and ensure that the bills were passed into law before his tenure expired on February 23.
They vowed to prevent the governor from presenting the appropriation bill to the assembly.
A witness said as soon as the protesters sighted the governor’s convoy on the road leading to the house of assembly, some of them started throwing stones at the convoy.
Saka Yusuf-Ogunleye, their leader, condemned the action of the police, saying the protest was not a violent one.
“We don’t know why there is this issue of sporadic shooting by the police in a peaceful protest,” he said.
“It is uncalled for, and we are calling on the inspector-general of police, well-meaning Nigerians and citizens of Ondo state to look into the matter.
“What we are protesting for is to tell our people that the governor is bringing a bill that will bring untold hardship to the people of the state. We are not violent with it.”
Femi Joseph, police public relations officer in the state, confirmed the attack on the governor’s convoy, explaining that the police had to disperse the protesters when they appeared to be going violent.
He said the commissioner of police in the state was not biased, but interested in ensuring that there was no breakdown of law and order in the state.
“Some of them attacked the convoy of the governor; about two vehicles in the convoy were damaged by the protesters,” he said.
“We initially allowed them to protest peacefully, we also appealed to them to be peaceful but when they started barricading the road throwing stones at the governor’s convoy, we had to disperse them.”
Some aggrieved residents of Ondo state stormed the state house of assembly on Wednesday ahead of the budget presentation by Olusegun Mimiko, the outgoing governor.
This would be the last time that Mimiko will perform the function, as he will be bowing out on February 24.
Wielding placards and chanting anti-government songs, the protesters are calling on Mimiko to pay the outstanding seven months’ salaries of civil servants before leaving office.
Security has been beefed up in strategic locations within the complex, while entry routes have been blocked.
The assembly is currently embroiled in leadership crisis. Jumoke Akindele, the first female speaker, was impeached last week, over allegations of fraud.
Akindele has since denied the allegations.
As of the time of filing this report, 18 of the 26 lawmakers in the assembly, had arrived at plenary awaiting the proceedings of the day.
A secret society is an organization whose members are sworn to secrecy about its activities. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, that hide their activities and memberships but maintain a public presence.
This description can be attached to the 8-year administration of Governor Olusegun Mimiko during which things were done in a secret manner. Those who know Governor Mimiko years back when he served as two-term Health Commissioner in Ondo State could be wondering what suddenly changed his behavior to people. Mimiko was given an appellation, ‘Gbasibe’, meaning, ‘put it there’. In case someone doesn’t know what this appellation stands for, it simply describes Mimiko as a cheerful giver. He used to give out money to everyone coming with one problem or the other, even when he was appointed as Minster of Housing and Urban Development under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration. If any past governor of Ondo State had failed to do well, one could have concluded that there is an evil spirit that changes one’s attitude after becoming governor at Ondo Government House. This appellation of ‘Gbasibe’ metamorphosed to ‘Iroko gbasibe’ when the governor contested for the 2007 governorship election.
It is said that power corrupts, but it is more apt to say that power attracts the corruptible. Shortly after Mimiko was declared winner of the 2007 governorship election by the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin, he ordered the freezing of the accounts of the state government. He therefore warned all commercial banks operating in Ondo State against transacting any business with any government official. People thought the governor’s directive was a signal that his administration would be cautious in spending the state’s funds, but the reverse is now the case, as Mimiko failed to give details of his financial spending in the last eight years.
When Governor Mimiko was sworn in to take over from the late former governor Olusegun Agagu in February 24, 2009, his first assignment in office was to sack the 18 Local Government Chairmen across the state. This action was described by the House of Assembly lawmakers as ‘unlawful’. They accused the governor to have taken law into his hands for sacking the LG Chairmen without due process. Mimiko quickly defended his action by faulting the December 15, 2007 election that brought the local government officials to power as illegal.
According to him, there were unresolved legal issues before the then Ondo State Independent National Electoral Commission (ODIEC) went ahead to conduct the election. Efforts made by the LG chairmen to return to their offices never succeeded. It took Dr. Mimiko more than seven years to conduct a local government election. Contrary to the governor’s electioneering campaigns to maintain a transparent government, Mimiko never disclosed how he had managed the Local Government funds for over 7 years.
Precisely February 23, 2009, the late former governor of Ondo State, Dr. Agagu left government house at Alagbaka in a hurry when Court of Appeal dashed his hope to retain power. It is on record that the late governor left a whopping N38.6 billion in the state coffers for Mimiko to inherit. This money generated a lot of controversy between Governor Mimiko, who was then in the Labour Party (LP), and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The ‘Iroko’ claimed that late Agagu left a debt profile of N117 billion when he hurriedly left office, but the PDP described Mimiko’s statement as untrue.
The PDP said that Mimiko failed to give details of how he arrived at the huge debt since he was the one who raised the allegation of the controversial N117 billion.
Addressing journalists at the party’s secretariat in Akure, the state capital, the Chairman, PDP State Publicity Committee Demola Ijabiyi said Mimiko had no proof on the allegation.
Ijabiyi said Agagu handed over the state to the LP with clean hands, adding that the former government did not owe any contractor or loot the treasury.
“When Mimiko first made this allegation in his State of the Finances of the State Address in August 2009, we challenged him through Dr. Tayo Dairo, our state chairman at the time, to give the details. We of the PDP even went as far as petitioning the House of Assembly to ask him for details. And we are aware that the House actually challenged him on this. Till now, no details were given; yet, the administration keeps repeating the allegation.
“What we do know is that, as admitted by the Mimiko administration itself, the total sum of all the capital projects of the Agagu administration was N82 billion. From N30 billion of this, the administration paid 30 per cent mobilisation, leaving a balance of N21 billion. And from the remaining N52 billion, it paid 50 per cent mobilisation, leaving a balance of N26 billion. On both categories, the balance was N47 billion.
“Some of the projects were completed and paid for in full, so that eventually, the outstanding balance is far less than N40 billion. That administration left behind a cash of N38 billion which, when subtracted from the outstanding balance, will leave nothing left as debt but cash asset, instead.
“So, how come the N117 billion? We must declare categorically that the PDP government, under Dr. Olusegun Agagu, never owed a kobo on projects, salaries, pensions, or any other thing whatsoever. It also owed no kobo to any bank. That is why we have been calling on the present administration to come out with details. Mimiko must, therefore, speak out. It is a duty and not a favour.
“Talking of this N38 billion cash, the Mimiko administration has claimed that the amount left behind by the Agagu administration was N34 billion. Whether 38 or 34, we demand to know how the money was spent by Governor Mimiko. A rumour has it that a substantial part of it was lost in a deal with a new generation bank. Mimiko must speak out on this,” said Ijabiyi.
Ijabiyi alleged that the government had been spending Ondo State resources recklessly by “inflating some of the projects it embarked upon”.
He added: “For instance, each of the bus stops in Akure cost N50 million; the Alagbaka Roundabout and its water fountain cost N480 million; the electric poles on the Oba Adesida Road (in Akure) costs N3.9 million each; the cost of repairing the damaged 100-metre portion of the Akure-Owo Road at Ogbese was N118 million.
“The Mother and Child Hospital, originally meant to cost about N100 million, has gulped over N1 billion; N1.5 billion was spent on the Dome project before the project was abandoned; the cost of a new mega school has risen from the N365 million estimated for each to over N800 million, even when they all remain uncompleted.”
By February 23, 2017, Mimiko will hand over the state government to Chief Rotimi Akeredolu of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The outgoing governor will be leaving behind 8-9 months salary arrears owed to workers and pensioners in the state. Nobody knows how much Dr. Mimiko will leave at the state treasury. It is also on record that the late Agagu did not owe any contractor, but one is not sure the number of contractors Mimiko will owe, as his outgoing government keeps on awarding and executing projects at late hours.
It would be recalled that the autocratic leadership style of Mimiko caused the former Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Chief Olaiya Oni, and other key leaders of the party to resign and defect to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Specifically, the late Oni, who was a Minister of Education popularly referred to as ‘Garrison Commander’ in the LP circle, in his resignation letter on August, 2011, accused Mimiko of making appointments into key positions without consulting him, underfunding the party, not carrying him along in state functions, nonchalance towards his (Oni’s) personal welfare, not supporting his bid to remove the king of his town from the throne, and outright disrespect for his office as the state party chairman.
The letter reads in part, “Dr. Olusegun Agagu spited me by installing a pretender on the stool of my forefathers. You asked me to lie low and when we get into government, the issue would be reversed. What did I get? Late Hon. Alademehin and Mr. Dare Adebiyi, the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission asked me to go and hang!
“To date, I have spent over N2m as legal fees on the matter. You left me to swim the tide alone. I disposed of my assets — landed property, shares in blue-chip companies and banks — to support the struggle. What have I got in return since February 2009 when we got our mandate? The leader of the party sends only N450,000 to me every month, an amount which covers only salaries of staff. How have I been feeding as the state chairman of the party in power? And you know I am too proud to beg for money and I have told you so severally. Is that fair to a person like me who spearheaded the struggle that gave us power?
“Appointments into positions have been done mostly without reference to the party, as a result of this, many of the political appointees do not know where the party secretariat is located nor do they defer to me as the chairman. The final straw was the issue of submitting names in Abuja for political positions. I have been Minister of the Federal Republic with a distinguished record and you know I will never ask you to nominate me. But what about our party leaders who worked to make the success story of Mr. President?”
It is glaring that Governor Mimiko ruled the state alone for 8 years without allowing anybody to interfere with his governmental affairs. No wonder the governor reportedly betrayed the All Progressives Congress national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The former Lagos State governor, who contributed exceedingly to Mimiko’s victory both at the Election Petition Tribunal and Court of Appeal, described the governor as an ingrate who deceived him into believing that he would join the ACN.
Tinubu, who stated this while addressing journalists in Lagos ahead of his 62nd birthday in March 2012, said, “When Mimiko was cheated, he cried to me in this house. I was a governor then. My advice was that we should fight the injustice through democratic means if he believes he has been cheated. I said let’s fight electoral irregularity together. Then the understanding was that we were one party and part of the progressives. Mimiko said he was coming to ACN given that he could not change as a candidate of the Labour Party while fighting a matter in court. It doesn’t make sense: why should I be working for Labour Party? That promise was betrayed, reneged and broken.”
“I hate to have been used. If you say you belong to Labour and Labour is not part of us in any alliance are you saying my party cannot compete? They contested election in Lagos, we didn’t quarrel with that. So, why are they quarreling with the fact that ACN is contesting election in Ondo? So, even if there was not a written agreement, is that how you reward the goodness done to you?”
The All Progressives Congress in Ondo State has raised alarm over alleged secret recruitment of workers by the outgoing government of Governor Olusegun Mimiko into various ministries and parastatals in the state.
The Publicity Secretary of APC in Ondo State, Mr. Abayomi Adesanya, told newsmen on Friday that letters of appointment issued are being back-dated while Governor Mimiko is also selling government properties to cronies.
The statement alleged that the move was to ambush the incoming APC government.
It said, “We have been adequately informed of the unholy and unpatriotic dealings of the outgoing Governor Olusegun Mimiko, by secretly employing over 10,000 people into all the ministries, parastatals and agencies in the state, especially Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.
“This is in a bid to create problems and complexity for the incoming administration of APC when his eight years tenancy in Alagbaka Government House, ends in Feb. 2017.
“Mr Mimiko has been recruiting massively into the Health Sector, Local Governments, Education Ministry, among others.
“Properties of the State Oil Palm Plantation at Okitipupa, Irele, Araromi-Obu are being sold at give-away prices to the governor’s allies.
“Specifically, we are aware that one Mercedes Benz lorry, popularly called 9/11, was sold for just one hundred thousand Naira only (N100,000).”
The statement further alleged that government landed properties were also being sold and shared among some politicians without due process.
It alleged that several government vehicles had been driven away and were kept in various mechanics’ workshops across the state and neighbouring states, with registration number removed.
The party, therefore, urged senior civil servants in all the ministries and departments not to get involved in any sharp practice, adding that incoming government would deal with any corrupt act.
It said, “The party also cautions the heads of ministries and parastatals, especially permanent secretaries and directors, not to be part of these untoward acts, as full investigations and probe will be launched.
“Appropriate action would be taken when APC government takes over the reins of power by February, 2017.”
Reacting, the State Commissioner for Information, Mr Kayode Akinmade, said the allegation was a “total falsehood aim at misinforming the public’’.
“For political consideration, government did not reduce the workforce.
“We have done everything to reduce wages due to the economic situation in the country.
“Anybody who is talking about secret recruitment and selling of government properties is alien to the structure of government; moreover not at the wee hours of this administration,’’ Akinmade said.
Rotimi Akeredolu, governor-elect of Ondo state, and Olusegun Mimiko, outgoing governor, met on Wednesday for the first time since the September 26 election.
Mimiko, who received Akeredolu at the Alagbaka Government House, Akure, said he had put in place a “seamless” transition to usher in a new government in February.
He sought Akeredolu’s support and emphasied on the need to sustain the peace being enjoyed in the state.
Mimiko described the peace in Ondo as one of the greatest accomplishments of his government.
Akeredolu commended him for his services to the state.
He said Mimiko had displayed exemplary leadership quality in various capacities, and that history will be Kind to him.
My previous article published by this revered media company on October 30, 2016, tagged “Mimiko’s Hope Dashed Before Election” attracted criticism from the camp of Governor Olusegun Mimiko. His boys bombarded me with different threat messages, insulting my personality through social media and phone calls. As I give kudos to this medium of reporting truth on daily happenings in Nigeria, I am bold to say that the administration of Mimiko, since 2009 and up till date, has brought nothing but hardship to the good people of Ondo State. If someone could go back to history and see how the great ‘Iroko’ of Ondo State emerged as governor through the instrumentality of law and peoples’ financial and moral supports, Mimiko should not have been the least governor in Ondo State since 1999 that has performed below expectations of the people.
One may have thought that having been part of the system since 1992, Mimiko ought to have studied different challenges confronting people of the state and finding a lasting solution to them. He was a Commissioner for Health and Social Services in January 1992 during the Nigerian Third Republic under the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which had Bamidele Olumilua as elected Governor of Ondo State. Mimiko left the office in late 1993 as a result of the military coup d’état that terminated that Republic.
In 1999 also, Governor Mimiko was a Commissioner for Health during the administration of late Chief Adebayo Adefarati under Alliance for Democracy (AD) before he resigned in 2002 to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mimiko was a leading light of Chief Adefarati’ s administration that led prominent indigenes of Ondo State like late Chief Rufus Giwa, Dr. Akerele Adu, Dr. Olu Agunloye, Chief Yele Omogunwa, Senator Nimbe Farunkanmi, Dr. Awolowo Ajaka, Dr. Tayo Dairo, Chief Niyi Omodara, Mr. Tunji Ariyo, Chief Jise Akinmurele, Chief Bamidele Awosika, Col. Akin Falaye (Rtd.) among others to work against the second term governorship ambition of the late Adefarati.
All these people worked against the administration of AD to support PDP in ensuring Olusegun Agagu defeated Chief Adefarati (both late). In order to show appreciation to Governor Mimiko for what he did, the late Agagu appointed him the Secretary to the State Government, a position occupied till July 2005, when he was appointed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo as a Minister of the Federal Republic in charge of the Housing and Urban Development Ministry.
An adage in Yoruba says, “Omuntin Gbagbe Ise,” meaning, “A drunkard forgets being wretched.” Let me quickly break it down, in case you still do not understand what I intend to say. I do not know whether someone has experienced being poor in his life ever, before becoming rich. If you do and unfortunately forget the bitter experience or experiences you passed through when you were poor and start misbehaving to people, then the Yoruba will say “Omuntin Gbagbe Ise.” Because you are now rich, that makes you talk carelessly and allow the spirit of pride and arrogance to bestow on you. This can be linked to the nearly two decades administration of Dr. Mimiko.
If anyone should be described as a lucky politician in the political history of Ondo State, it is Governor Mimiko, the one whom people of the state stood by during hard-times. Despite calling the medical doctor by profession different names, that he was an indigene of Kogi State, and that Ondo State people should reject him when he was contesting the 2007 governorship election against late Dr. Olusegun Agagu, people still went ahead and massively voted for Mimiko.
Governor Mimiko came into power through the financial support of people, especially the National Leader of All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu. Mimiko presented himself as a saint man who does not have a record of financial recklessness during his stay in different offices before becoming the governor. This quality Mimiko claims to have possessed made people, especially the Labour Party (LP) members to contribute financially from the unit, local government and state levels to support his governorship campaigns in 2007. Those who had no money to contribute went to different mountains to pray for the emergence of Governor Mimiko as governor of Ondo State.
The Ondo State of today is far worse than the Ondo State we had before the February 2009. It is a state that is wallowing in abject poverty. The government of Governor Mimiko inherited the sum of N38 billion from late Agagu’s government. Now that the governor’ s tenure is ending in February, people are anxious to know how much the outgoing administration will leave behind. It is on record that Agagu left a buoyant economy for Mimiko.
Today, it is a fact that the economy of the state is hemorrhaging and bleeding satanically. Presently, the administration of Governor Mimiko owes workers in the state 6 months salary, including the state government retirees who are now begging to survive. Almost 80% of the youths in the state are jobless as a result of the failure of the governor to resuscitate the moribund industries, which he promised to do when he was campaigning in 2007. Pundits argue that if these abandoned companies, namely: Oluwa Glasses at Igbokoda, Bolorunduro Timbers, Ifon ceramics, Arigidi Tomato Paste Factory, Okitipupa Oil Palms mill among others were to be revived, Ondo State would have become one of the best states in Nigeria.
Mimiko, who also campaigned against past governors to have abandoned the projects never shows any concern of reviving, at least one out of the companies. Many projects have gone down the drain since the administration of Governor Mimiko came into power. Those who say that promises are better not made than fail to keep them feel affronted on account of the failed promises allegedly made by Governor Mimiko while seeking for the votes of the people eight years ago.
The people of Ondo North and South are worst hit as the list shows important projects that could have impacted positively on their lives. They include, the Construction of Mother and Child Hospital in each local government area, the Arigidi Akoko Tomato Industry on which more than over N200 million has been spent, establishment of the Okeluse Cement Factory and empowerment of artisans, Ifon Ceramic Industry in Ose Local Government, the Alpha 3D Factory in Ikare among others.
Those projects abandoned by Mimiko in the Central Senatorial District also include the Akure township stadium, the multi-billion Naira Owena multipurpose dam, and the Idanre Golf Course, just to mention a few.
These projects are described as “people-oriented” which were on before Mimiko’s administration came and promised to resuscitate which it did not.
With just a few months till the end of his tenure, Governor Mimiko has allegedly awarded not less than N60 billion different contracts in the state. To crown it all, the governor recently launched Food Palliative Programmes, which according to him will cut across the 18 Local Government areas of Ondo State. Why is our governor embarking on these projects at late hours? Why has Mimiko failed to implement the gesture years ago? To the supporters of the governor, Mimiko is now demonstrating the good governance for the people, but to political pundits, he is leaving behind a huge debt for the in coming government.
With all aforementioned failed promises Governor Mimiko’s government never accomplished in Ondo State, the people of the state deserve an apology from him. It is also good to know that “Whatever you do will definitely speak after your exit.”
A cartoon published earlier by Punch offers perhaps the most prophetic foreword to the political tragedy that climaxed in Ondo on November 26. Someone in an unconscious state is sketched being hustled away from the shelter of the Iroko (big oak tree) as the Good Samaritan mutters, “struck by lightning”.
Indisputably, the Iroko moniker is patent for the brand of politics Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has retailed in Ondo State in the past two decades. The ill-starred vagrant depicted in the cartoon could only be Eyitayo Jegede, a senior advocate he had anointed to succeed him as governor, only to finish poorly in last weekend’s polls.
The cartoonist’s surreal evocation is obviously rooted in Yoruba cosmology, which ordinarily invests the Iroko shrub with some metaphysical prowess. But in the event that such powers prove impotent under a tempest, so much that the proverbial lightning could strike so viciously right under its shadow, it is then safe to conclude that such Iroko must have “gba abode” (come under an evil spell).
What remains therefore is its decapitation as a rite in exorcism.
For a man who has more or less dominated Ondo politics in the last decade, so sad that Mimiko would end riotously on a low. Now completely stripped after the November 26 endgame and haunted still by the grotesque shadow of PDP in complete disarray on account of factionalization, it would be entirely surprising today if Iroko is not already filled with nostalgia for the comfort and the peace of mind the old Labour Party had provided him before greed for power lured him to PDP in 2014.
For an outgoing governor, nothing indeed could be traumatizing as the thoughts of a hostile takeover. For a man obsessed with the affectation of populism over the years and who, by action, seemed forever apprehensive about how future historians would accommodate him, how ironic that Mimiko will have to spend his remaining days in office agonizing more on how to balance the naira and kobo in the financial book, let alone bother about what fate awaits the sundry cenotaphs carved in his image across the state.
But let no one shed tears for this prodigal son. Alas, the Iroko of perfidy is irreverently toppled by the whirlwind of Karma. Only poor students of history would not have foreseen this calamitous end for Mimiko.
In hindsight, it is obvious that the deep fissures in PDP at the national level contributed to Jegede’s defeat. But even as the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Mimiko acted up his billing as a political sailor without moral compass. All along, he continued to flirt with both the Makarfi camp and the Sheriff faction, perhaps shamelessly hoping to bed one after the other. Until Jimoh Ibrahim locked the room and took away the key.
To be fair, overall, no one can deny the fallen Iroko credits for modest achievements in the area of improved healthcare (especially maternal welfare) and empowerment of market women through the provision of stalls and soft loans.
But with the hostile take-over of last weekend, Iroko has lost the opportunity to have a say in how his story in the last eight years will be officially documented. And the stories of his little miracle here and there will likely be completely obliterated when the “enemies” commence a re-write after his exit.
Essentially, Mimiko’s tragic flaw stems from the carnal assumption that political success is to be measured only by material acquisitions without subscribing to any enduring moral value. To believe in nothing and stand for nothing is the worst cardinal sin. Even common harlots are governed by some ethics – an obligation to keep clients’ confidentiality, for instance.
Now, Iroko’s loneliness should be framed in the proper context. In his hey-day, he conveniently chose to believe that politics and politicking could exist in a moral vacuum. A psychotic affliction which led my brother and colleague, Sam Omatseye, to memorably characterize him as “whitlow of the South-west”.
In his delusion, the medical-doctor-turned-politician forgot that politics is defined by an avowal of a set of values. Without that, the player is perhaps no better than a motor-park tout, scavenging for his next meal ticket.
To the scion of the otherwise illustrious Mimiko family of Ondo town, politics is all about self and the preservation of narrow interests. That explains why his political odyssey in the last seventeen years would now look more like an adventure in treacheries and infamy.
As an appointee of Governor Ade Adefarati of Alliance for Democracy (AD) between 1999 and 2002, he was recruited by PDP to undermine his benefactor.
When Olusegun Agagu became governor in 2003 through PDP’s now infamous “operation totality” in the South-west, he was compensated with the plum office Secretary to the State Government.
Barely two years later, he was “promoted” to Abuja as minister. But he wanted something bigger – Agagu’s job! That set him at odds with Obasanjo and Agagu and would ignite a chain of events culminating in his migration to the Labour Party in 2006.
His scant regard for loyalty explains why he later felt no scruples in trading the otherwise much cherished Labour badge away for a rickety accommodation in PDP two years ago, thus casually abandoning mid-stream the teeming community of workers across the country who had basked in the illusion of a toe-hold, if not foothold, in political power in Nigeria through Ondo.
Yet, when it mattered most, when the PDP hyenas callously left him defenestrated in 2006, it was the same Labour that graciously offered him shelter and platform for rehabilitation. Having used the vehicle to gain second term in 2012, he opted to trade with PDP. Without conscience, he owed workers whopping six months salaries, but had money to finance his surrogate’s election bid. Without shame, he again attempted to deceive the same labour unions weeks ago by urging them to vote Jegede with a laughable promise to pay after the elections.
The same lack of sense of loyalty also explains why Mimiko hardly batted an eyelid three years ago before clamping down heavily on the popular Adaba FM in Akure. For airing news items he did not find flattering, he showed naked power by doing the unthinkable – dug a deep valley in the only access road to the station! That punitive action rendered it inaccessible to workers and clients.
Yet, when PDP “stole” his mandate in 2007 and he was left alone in the wilderness, the same Adaba FM provided him a platform to speak directly to the Ondo public, at no cost.
At personal level, the ordeals of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim are now public knowledge. For all Tinubu’s moral and financial support during the protracted legal battle to reclaim his stolen mandate, Mimiko, emboldened by his new PDP friends in Abuja, would turn round to publicly call his old benefactor unprintable names during his re-election bid in 2012.
If Jimoh Ibrahim chose to go dirty and personal against Mimiko and his surrogate, it is probably the only way the maverick businessman imagined he could avenge what he considers a great betrayal. The story is told of how the Igbotako-born publisher of Mirror Newspaper had extended huge financial support as well as legal guidance and counseling to Mimiko while fighting Agagu between 2007 and 2008 even though the latter was supposed to be his kinsman.
But once Mimiko entered office, as the story goes, one of the early actions he took was to move against Ibrahim’s interest in Ondo’s hospitality sector.
In 2010 came a big drama at the Akure airport. On landing from Abuja in a chartered propeller aircraft, Mimiko decided to walk over and say “hello” to Ibrahim nestling in his new Challenger jet. But no sooner had the governor stepped onto the aisle than Ibrahim reportedly barked at him, wondering what strange coffee he drank: “Who invited you to my plane?! Get out of my plane!!”
With his security details left in a quandary as Ibrahim raised hell, Mimiko quietly left the scene.
The paths of the two old-buddies-turned-adversaries would again cross in 2011 when Ibrahim first sought to contest the governorship on the platform of PDP, the sponsorship of which he had since taken over. As the story goes, then President Goodluck Jonathan counseled him to wait till 2016 as “Mimiko is working for me even though he’s in Labour Party.”
Though disappointed at the turn of events, Ibrahim obeyed Jonathan. Thus, “federal might” was put behind Mimiko to overrun APC’s Rotimi Akeredolu in 2012, rendering PDP’s own Olusola Oke a political orphan in the polls. But no sooner had Mimiko been sworn in for second term in 2013 than he, characteristically, decided to officially move over to PDP, thus displacing Ibrahim’s as the party leader in Ondo.
Extravagantly hoping Jonathan would deliver himself in 2015, Iroko began to see himself as PDP’s clearing-house in South-west and, ipso facto, the new Yoruba leader.
Today, the lightning has struck and Ibrahim is obviously having the last laugh.
The All Progressives Congress in Ondo State has expressed delight in the congratulatory message sent by Governor Olusegun Mimiko to the Governor-elect, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN).
The party also urged the outgoing governor to ensure smooth transition of power to the governor-elect.
The party’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Abayomi Adesanya, in a statement issued in Akure on Thursday, commended Mimiko for his ”show of sportsmanship”.
He said, “We accept the congratulatory message of Mr. Governor on our candidate’s landslide victory in the last Saturday’s governorship election.
“APC commends the outgoing governor for his statesmanship.
“We urge him to ensure smooth transition and genuine handover devoid of discrepancies and imbalances experienced by President Muhammadu Buhari when he took over from former President Goodluck Jonathan.”
Mimiko had on November 28 congratulated Akeredolu and wished him success in the challenging task of governing the state.
INEC had declared Akeredolu of the APC as winner of the Nov. 26 governorship election in the state after polling 244,842 votes to beat his closest rival, Eyitayo Jegede, of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, who garnered 150,380 votes.
Outgoing Ondo state Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, has congratulated the Governor-elect, Rotimi Akeredolu over his victory in Saturday’s guber poll.
Mimiko in a congratulatory message signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Eniola Akinsola, said he would facilitate a smooth transition of his government with the incoming administration of Mr. Akeredolu in the days ahead.
The statement which came as a surprise to many reads: “It behoves of him as the Governor of Ondo State to congratulate the Governor-elect, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) and wish him success in the challenging task of governing our dear state.
“It is incumbent upon me as Governor to facilitate a smooth transition between my government and the incoming one. I will, to this end, provide the ambience for a smooth and seamless transition process.”
Mimiko promised to provide continued leadership to the state until the last day in office.
He appreciated the people for their peaceful conduct during the Saturday poll adding that he would not renege on his promised till the end of his tenure.
“I use this medium to express my sincere appreciation to all our citizens for the very peaceful manner in which they conducted themselves throughout the election period.
“I will not waiver in providing needed leadership to our dear State till the last day of my term,” the governor said.
He asked the residents of the state to strive to sustain the peace enjoyed in the state for the past seven years with a promise to address them publicly at a date to be announced later.
The governor who suffered bruising defeat in last Saturday’s guber election has not paid workers salaries in the last 7 months.
In this analysis, Bisi Abidoye looks at the talking points from last weekend’s governorship election in Ondo State
Gatecrashing the federal party?
The All Progressives Congress won Saturday’s governorship election of Ondo state. The candidate of the party, Rotimi Akeredolu, was declared winner, having received the highest number of the votes and met all the stipulated requirement. Mr. Akeredolu won in 13 of the 18 local government areas of the state and was runner-up in the other five shared by his two nearest rivals, Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party (who won in three LGAs) and Olusola Oke of the Alliance for Democracy (who won in the other two LGAs.)
If Mr. Akeredolu’s election stands, it will be only the second time in the 40-year history of Ondo state that it has elected the candidate of a federal ruling party, the first being Olusegun Agagu who was elected on the platform of the PDP in 2003. Of course, the electoral commission had on two other occasions returned candidates of the parties ruling at the centre – Akin Omoboriowo of the National Party of Nigeria in 1983 and Segun Agagu of the PDP in 2007. But both verdicts were upturned at the court. Mr. Omoboriowo’s win was quashed after an uprising that gave the state its reputation for violent resistance to perceived electoral shenanigans.
It may be relevant that Ondo voted APC in last year’s federal elections, before consoling Mr. Mimiko by electing a majority of his party’s candidates into the state legislature. And just last week, the only Ondo senator elected last year on PDP ticket, Yele Omogunwa, defected to join the APC caucus. Maybe Ondo is an APC state after all.
When is a mandate?
Mr. Akeredolu won the election with 244,842 votes. But his tally represents only 44.41 percent of the valid votes cast, and means there were more voters on Saturday who preferred someone else as governor.
In some other electoral systems, where a mandate can only be delivered by a majority of voters, the Ondo state governor-elect would only have qualified for a run-off against his closest rival. But don’t blame Mr. Akeredolu for this seeming quirk – Nigeria’s electoral system awards victory to the candidate with the highest number of votes, if the candidate can show his or her footprints across the constituency. The framers of the nation’s constitution made provisions to ensure that the winning plurality does not come from only a section of the field. In addition to having the highest number of votes, the winner must also score at least a quarter of the votes in at least two-thirds of the constituency.
Mr. Akeredolu cleanly scaled this hurdle – in fact, he had majority of the votes in each of 13 LGAs and returned second with more than a quarter of the votes in each of the other five of the state’s 18 LGAs, apart from Ilaje where his rival of the AD denied every other candidate that honour.
But that is not the only thing that may twitch some purists’ noses. Only 35.49 percent of the registered voters cared to turn out last Saturday, despite initial media reports of public enthusiasm about the polls. If you take Mr. Akeredolu’s 244, 842 votes as a percentage of the 1,647,973 registered voters, then it means he has been elected by only 14.85 percent of those who were entitled to have a say on who should be the next governor of Ondo State. Again, this is not peculiar to Mr. Akeredolu, many before him had been so elected, including the man who would soon be his predecessor, Olusegun Mimiko.
What happened, Mr. Mimiko?
The outgoing two-term governor’s party got only 27.27 percent of the votes on Saturday (150,380). Curiously, the chairman of the PDP Governors Forum was never elected on a PDP ticket. He became governor in 2008 after a successful petition against the 2007 election of PDP’s Mr. Agagu. A post-primary defector from the PDP, he had challenged Mr. Agagu’s reelection on the ticket of the Labour Party and was reelected in 2012 on the same party’s ticket, in a three-man race that mirrored that of last Saturday. His two main challengers in that election were Mr. Akeredolu of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria and Mr. Oke, who was the PDP candidate at the time. After his reelection, Mr. Mimiko defected with the governor’s seat to the PDP, infuriating sitting members of the party in the state, including Mr. Oke who eventually fled to the APC.
In the 2012 election, Mr. Oke’s PDP finished second behind Mr. Mimiko’s Labour Party. So with the LP dissolving into the PDP long before Saturday’s election, it was normal to project the PDP as frontrunner last Saturday. Alas! It returned a distant second with just over 27 percent of the votes. Considering that the PDP candidate was handpicked by Mr. Mimiko, did the outcome of the election indicate how sore Ondo voters were over the stewardship of the outgoing governor?
A rolling stone
As for Mr. Oke, what would he make of his finishing on Saturday? He was first runner-up in 2012, albeit with the (some have said half-hearted) support of the PDP which then controlled the federal government. Mr. Oke defected to the APC in resentment of Mr. Mimiko taking over the PDP in the state. He ran for the ticket of the APC but again left in a huff over alleged lack of fair play in the primary. Mr. Oke seized the ticket of the AD for last Saturday’s election to howls by some of the older members of the party. But it was widely speculated that a disaffected section of the APC covertly backed his campaign, so many punters made him the dark horse. It turned out not to be a smart bet. He returned very far behind the man whose nomination by the APC he had queried. Will he stay where he is now or keep his feet loose?
At least, Mr. Oke proved that he has home support though. He won in his Ilaje LGA handsomely, unlike Mr. Jegede of the PDP who only won in the backyard of his mentor, Mr. Mimiko.
Lame donkey or sabotaged?
To be fair to Mr. Jegede and the PDP, it still has to be analysed how much his race was affected by a headwind called Jimoh Ibrahim. For six critical weeks in the run-up to the election, Mr. Jegede gnashed his teeth in no man’s land after he was elbowed out as the candidate of the PDP by a court judgement the Appeal Court has sternly rebuked as fraudulent. While the other candidates were on the field courting the electorate and setting their nets for votes, Mr. Jegede was out in the cold baying at Mr. Ibrahim who had snatched his ticket and parading the courts for delayed help. When just two days to the election, the ticket was retrieved for him from the wily snatcher, Mr. Jegede did not know what else to do other than mount a fruitless campaign for postponement of the polls. No way the authorities would allow a family affair delay a race the community had long awaited. Now, the defeated PDP flag bearer can only rue what might have been! Still, you are not going to be proud of yourself when you cannot win even your LGA.
The-also-ran parties
Twenty eight parties presented candidates for the election. Although the media, trying to separate the men from the boys, projected a four-horse race, it turned out that only three horses actually ran to win, as Olu Agunloye of the Social Democratic Party garnered only 1.84 percent of the votes. The combined votes of all the other 24 amounted to a mere 3.47 percent! So what was their purpose on the ballot, apart from giving electoral officers clerical headache? Worse still, 16 of these parties had joined their voices with the PDP’s in calling for a postponement of the polls last week, pretending to be genuine stakeholders.
In some polities, a party or candidate has to scale some hurdles before being allowed on the ballot. This could be in the form of having their nominations endorsed by a percentage of the registered voters, or, as in the First Republic, making a deposit which they forfeit if at the end of the election they did not reach a particular threshold of the votes. May be Nigeria has to consider reintroducing something like that in the future, to weed the field. Imagine one of these parties being mistakenly left out of the ballot paper. It would have gone to court to have the entire election cancelled and repeated at great cost to everybody.
And by the way, what happened to Mr. Agunloye too? The former minister’s SDP has as its national leader, Olu Falae, an elder statesman whose chest is full of badges as a former secretary to the federal government, minister, presidential candidate of the combined forces of two major parties (AD/APP) in 1999 and an Akure monarch? Perhaps the media still has to learn how to identify paper tigers.
Finally, beware Mr. Akeredolu, speed breakers ahead!
Before Mr. Akeredolu assumes office next February, he would have to carefully ruminate on how to relate with his state Legislature that may be controlled by the vanquished PDP at least until 2019. The party has only a small majority in the House, but that is enough to make Mr. Akeredolu worry about forming his cabinet and passing his budgets. By giving control of different arms of government to different parties, Ondo voters too may need to hope that they have not inadvertently set the stage for gridlock in how their affairs will be run from next year.
The Ali Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, said it has identified impunity and lack of respect for the party’s constitution and the rule of law as the major problems that led to the its failure in the Edo and Ondo governorship elections.
Many have expressed the belief that the decision of Mr. Sheriff and his supporters to factionalise the PDP led to its failure in the elections.
The faction, at a media briefing on Monday in Abuja, however said the blame for the losses falls on three governors elected under the platform of the party.
Cairo OjougbohFactional Deputy National Chairman
Although the faction did not mention the names of the three governors, it has been engaged in running battles with governors Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.
Monday’s press briefing, addressed by the Deputy National Chairman of the faction, Cairo Ojougbo, said ” in all these difficult times only three governors have been the architects of the destruction of the party”.
Mr. Ojougbo said only the governors of “Taraba, Gombe, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers and a few others have been very cooperative and are willing to let the party grow. They have shown maturity, understanding and sagacity in the affairs of the PDP.”
THE BEGINNING OF OUR DOWNFAL
The Sheriff faction recalled that the impact of impunity in the PDP manifested itself for the first time in the 2011 general elections when the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, defeated the PDP in Nasarawa State.
“We had a sitting governor then who could not deliver. This was the first warning against impunity. It was ignored.
Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti State Governor
“Then in 2015 we had governors in Benue, Kogi, Niger, Jigawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Bauchi and Adamawa. We lost in all these states for a common reason, the governors were not unpopular but they imposed their surrogates and the people voted them out. We paid for impunity,” Mr. Ojougbo said.
The faction argued that an analysis of the 2015 general election showed that all the ten states the party lost were in the northern part of the country, adding that even south-south states would not have survived if former President Goodluck Jonathan did not hail from the region. It said the figures that emanated from the south-east were also “abysmal”.
Mr. Ojougbo said the outcome of the 2015 election proved that although governors are very important in winning elections for a party, they do not necessarily determine the outcome.
“The running of the party should therefore not be left entirely to their whims and caprices. The party must have a say because party is supreme. In the case of Mimiko’s Ondo, the party was denied the valuable say,” he said.
The party leader also said that the faction had cried to all concerned ahead of the Edo election that the party hierarchy in the state was defective and that the Leadership needed to be changed “to allow the 60 stalwarts of the PDP who defected to APC return to the fold.”
Olusegun Mimiko
“Of course the governors refused. There was no surprise to the result.
“In Ondo State, the script was written in 2013 when Governor Mimiko returned to PDP. All members he met on the ground left the party for him and he took over the PDP. The structure was handed over to the Labour Party.
“If Oke had not gone to AD and Mimiko managed leadership sportsmanly, PDP would have won the election convincingly.
“In the election, APC scored 244,842 votes while PDP scored 150,380 and AD scored 126,889 votes. It is a fact that the AD votes belong to PDP and the simple arithmetic shows why PDP lost; our votes went to Oke and AD,” he said.
He also said that when Mr. Mimiko returned to the PDP, his fellow governors appealed to him to allow for harmonization but he refused.
He said all the PDP members led by Olusola Oke therefore left the party.
Mr. Ojougbo said in choosing a candidate to succeed him, Mr. Mimiko did not allow original members of the PDP to buy forms.
“He mainly anointed Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) who was returned unopposed.
“Party members cried to the high heavens that Jegede is from the central zone where Mimiko hails from. Their cries fell on deaf ears,” he said.
He also said the primary election organised by the Sheriff faction had six participants which returned Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate.
“Jimoh hails from the South. He campaigned vigorously and convinced the people to vote for him. But alas Mimiko will not allow him carry the party flag.
“Mimiko used the instrumentality of state government to overwhelm Jimoh but could not overwhelm the masses and voters. Of course the result is out there for all to see,” he said.
Sheriff independent of Buhari, APC
Mr. Ojougbo also said the accusation that Mr. Sheriff was doing the bidding of Nigeria’s ruling APC is not tenable.
He said it was PDP governors who invited Mr. Sheriff to be the chairman of the party. He also said when he (Sheriff) assumed office, he put in place a committee to conduct a National Convention to “elect people of good character to run the affairs of the party”.
He added that Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State was appointed the chairman of the zoning committee.
“The Governors met and decided that Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff should continue in office. The question is ‘was it Mr. President, General Buhari or the APC who sourced Senator Sheriff for the PDP’?
“Was it the APC who chaired the zoning committee that zoned chairmanship to Sheriff? The answer is No.
Ali Modu Sheriff
“We therefore call on all Nigerians to discountenance the idea that Sheriff is working for the APC. Sheriff was offered the senatorial ticket in the last general election after he left the APC. Senator Ali Modu Sheriff is a complete PDP faithful whose desire it is to reposition the party.
“Truth be told, Sheriff is insisting that power be returned to the people,” he said.
Mr. Ojougbo also spoke about the belief that Mr. Sheriff was a sponsor of the terrorist group, Boko Haram,
He said it is on record that when Mr. Sheriff was governor of Borno State, he suppressed and completely routed the Boko Haram.
“Boko Haram Killed 5 members of his family in the process of his fight against them.
“But when the current Governor of Borno State, Shettima, took over office, Boko Haram became emboldened, virulent and malignant.
“Note also that Shettima became governor because Boko Haram killed the man who was to be governor. His death paved way for the emergence of Shettima who willingly and deliberately encouraged Boko Haram.
“Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff has taken to court the Attorney General of Borno State who claimed that Sheriff is Boko Haram in Suit No. FCT/HC/CU/2494/2016 between Senator Dr. Ali Modu Sheriff vs. Barrister Kaka Shehu Lawan and 3 others which is currently ongoing,” he said.
Mr. Ojougbo said although the faction does not comment on individuals, but “for the sake of the survival of the party we take exceptions to the utterances of Prince Adeyeye”.
He said Mr. Adeyeye, spokesperson of the Ahmed Makarfi PDP faction, is attacking Mr. Sheriff’s faction believing that he will be awarded the governorship ticket of Ekiti State.
The sheriff faction, however, warned that if the PDP is not restructured, even if he ( Adeyeye) is awarded the ticket “which we know Fayose will not do, it will be an exercise in futility and a waste of time like Eyitayo Jegede’s”.
Mr. Ojougbo said Mr. Sheriff is the agent of change for the PDP and multiparty democracy in Nigeria.
“Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff remains the only and authentic National Chairman of the PDP and the NWC remains the only administrative body authorized by law to run the party.”
He concluded the briefing by calling on all party members to unite or the PDP will be dead forever.
Senator Buruji Kashamu yesterday disclosed that the Ondo State governor Olusegun Mimiko should be blamed for the loss of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon Eyitayo Jegede at last Saturday’s governorship election.
Sen Kashamu said the refusal of Mimiko to heed his advise against imposing Jegede who was from his (Mimiko) senatorial district caused PDP the state.
The Senator however upbraided the Sen Ahmed Makarfi-led National Caretaker Committee, over the statement credited to its national publicity secretary, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, that sanctions would soon be meted out on Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and his group.
Kashamu further said the verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket does not serve as rulings or judgement on the party’s national leadership crisis.
Kashamu, in a statement yesterday said, “my attention has been drawn to news reports credited to the spokesman of the National Caretaker Committee of our great party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Dayo Adeyeye, that the party would impose severe sanctions on Ali Modu Sheriff and his faction for all their actions intended to undermine the party’s interest.
“I wish to say that I believe that Prince Adeyeye was either misquoted or misrepresented because it is totally inconceivable that anyone who has the interest of the party at heart would contemplate such at this time.
“No one is afraid of any sanctions so long as we know that we are fighting to protect the interest of our people.
“A political party is a congregation of people with a common goal yet with various interests. In every political setting, people align and realign with the bloc or group where they feel their interest is better protected and guaranteed. If your bloc or group wins, it does not mean you should seek to emasculate the other because you never can tell what would happen tomorrow.
“I wish to advise that no one should mistake the verdicts of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court over the Ondo State PDP governorship ticket as their pronouncements on the national leadership crisis.
“They are two separate issues that I hope we can still resolve amicably. Anyone talking of sanctioning any member of the party for fighting to protect his interest does not wish the party well.”
He said that the gale of sanction in Osun, Ogun and Kwara states, would further exacerbate the crisis and lead to a gale of suspension and expulsion, adding, “the truth is: such a move will further undermine the party and its leadership.
“Is anyone saying that if tomorrow the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court rule in favour of any of the national leaders, he should send all those in support of the other out of the party when all the 36 states are polarised along the lines of Senators Sheriff and Makarfi? No. That is not the spirit of party politics and participatory democracy.”
Kashamu advised Makarfi not to let Governors Olusegun Mimiko and Ayodele Fayose to mislead him any further, adding that Mimiko refusal to heed advise was what led to PDP losing the state.
“In a political party, like every other setting, people are bound to have disagreements and protect their interests. Senator Makarfi should not let Governors Mimiko and Fayose to mislead him any further. The mess that they have put the party is already more than enough. Both of them are at their wits end, living on past glory and in self-delusion. They have failed to manage their political successes.
“We told Governor Mimiko that after eight, the good people of Ondo State would resist the injustice of producing a successor from the same senatorial district where he hails from. It is not that Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) is not a good material. He is urbane, intelligent and smart. He would have probably won had he come from any other senatorial zone than Mimiko’s.
“We told Mimiko that the people would not take anything that would look like a third term for him and his senatorial district. He would not listen. Ever slippery and sly, Governor Mimiko turned deaf ears to wise counsel, just like he turned his back on all those who helped him to power.
“Despite being the Chairman of the PDP Governors Forum, Governor Mimiko turned himself into Fayose’s puppet, allowing Fayose to lead him by the nose,” he said.
The ousted Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ondo State, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, has congratulated the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), who was declared the winner of the Ondo State governorship election on Sunday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) confirmed on Sunday that Mr. Akeredolu won the race with 244,842 votes over PDP candidate Eyitayo Jegede’s 150,380 votes.
Mr. Ibrahim congratulated Mr. Akeredolu before he was officially declared governor-elect.
He said, “My dear egbon. Congratulations. I have computed the results sent to me from 2907 wards by my party agents across Ondo State. It shows you are leading with unrecoverable margin. I congratulate you as governor-elect of our lovely state. I will advise you quickly maintain distance from Mimiko if you want to succeed.
“I have no doubt that you will urgently create hope for our people; kindly do whatever you can to assist your lovely civil servants. I saw poverty in those villages I visited during campaign. Please kindly assist traditional rulers as much as you can.”
The Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, has called on his supporters to resist an alleged attempt by the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, and the All Progressive Congress, APC, to subvert the will of the people and rig Saturday’s gubernatorial election in the state.
Mr. Mimiko, who was speaking during a press conference at the Dome in Akure, the state capital, on Friday said INEC has perfected plans to “deliver ill-fated results for the APC candidate.”
He alleged, as did the spokesperson for his Peoples Democratic Party, Banji Okunomo, that they have uncovered an arrangement by the INEC to use “the same team of election ad-hoc staff which masterminded the controversial Edo election” to rig the election in the state.
“I have to say this here and now that our people will not accept the rigging of the process unleashed on Edo. We reject unequivocally the mission of this team on our state,” said Mr. Mimiko, looking very agitated.
“In Edo State, they did not only call off collation (early), party agents, observers and journalists were ordered out of the collation centres allowing for final subversion of the will of the electorate. We shall not allow such ungodly process to be repeated in our state,” he said.
The governor alleged that INEC violated its own laws to make sure that its preconceived plans for the election come to past.
“Effort has been concerted by INEC and forces within the APC to prevent the emergence of a credible and electable candidate in Ondo state. For the avoidance of doubt, this ungodly process started when INEC in flagrant violation of extant laws governing elections removed the name of Eyitayo Jegede on the basis of a Justice Okon Abang order that has since been declared as a fraud at the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
“We wonder why INEC would remove the name of a man who emerged from a party primary that was conducted in a free, fair and open environment and by legitimate organs of the party where INEC itself was represented, with another name from a process that was illegal and by people not known to law.
“INEC discarded all legal advice not to substitute Eyitayo Jegede by its own chosen consortium of lawyers because Eyitayo Jegede was the legal and proper candidate of PDP.”
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal on Wednesday stating that Mr. Jegede was the legitimate candidate or the PDP.
Mr. Mimiko said INEC only replaced the name of Jimoh Ibrahim, the factional candidate of the PDP with that of Mr. Jegede, after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He added that the PDP has not been given the opportunity to submit the names of its party agents or even the opportunity to raise funds to campaign
He questioned why INEC insisted on going ahead with the election on Saturday when it still has up to January to conduct the election. He said INEC’s insistence showed that it was working with powers with the APC to rig the election.
“Several other hurdles were placed on the way of the PDP candidate Eyitayo Jegede to the extent that he did not become a candidate until about 48 hours to his own election.
“INEC did not release the list on the voters register to PDP until yesterday in clear infraction of its own laws. In a free and fair contest, INEC is supposed to have released the electoral register so that the candidate should actually know and the party should properly organise. Under the electoral act and INEC guideline a nominated candidate should have his name published at least 30 days to the election.
“INEC denied Eyitayo Jegede to submit the names of his party agent which according to Section 35 of the Electoral Act 2010, is supposed to submit it at least 7 days before the election. Two days to the election, Eyitayo Jegede’s supporters are not sure of those parading themselves as agents of the party. In fact, we got the information yesterday that some so called party agents of the PDP held a meeting in Akoko and agreed to work with the APC.
“Those are agents of candidates that have been described as an impostors in our party. A day to the election, many of our units and wards have not received agent cards from INEC. The agents with INEC were submitted by a man who has been exposed as a fifth columnist in the election. We were expected to run a race with our arms tied behind our back. While INEC goes ahead to foist a wururu to the answer result. We would not accept.
“Forty-eight hours to the election you are saying that the election must continue willy-nilly, how does the candidate raise money for the election? Are we saying that money is not part of this process or is he expected to raise the funds within 48 hours.
“The question is why the stubborn insistence on going ahead with tomorrow. Knowing full well that they still have up to January under the law to conduct this election. We shall not take it. In this instance, injustice stares us in the face and we are being treated by INEC and all the agents and the powers that control them, the power that sent them obnoxious phone calls to act outside the law, we are being treated like slaves and a conquered people in our own country, we will no longer take it. INEC is being forced to subvert its own process.
He, however, called on the people of the state to remain peaceful but to be firm in resisting any attempt at rigging the election at the polling unit or the collation centres.
The Supreme Court on Thursday referred back to the Court of Appeal, Abuja, all pending cases relating to the dispute over the leadership tussle between the Ali Modu Sheriff an?d Ahmed Makarfi factions of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The appeals which the apex court referred back to the Court of Appeal have to do with questions bordering on which of the factions of the party ?has the authority to instruct lawyers to represent the party in a pending case before Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The five-man panel of the ape?x court led by the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, also, in a separate unanimous ruling, struck out all pending appeals relating to the candidacy of the PDP for the Saturday’s governorship election in Ondo State.
Justice Onnoghen, who read the lead ruling, held that the pending appeals before the apex court had become academic in view of the judgment of the Justice Ibrahim Saulawa-led panel of the Court of Appeal, Abuja delivered on Wednesday, reinstating Eyitayo Jegede as the PDP’s governorship candidate in the Ondo State election.
The Acting CJN informed parties to the appeals on Thursday that the apex court was not ready to hear the cases piecemeal.
He directed that the appellants should raise the issues in their interlocutory appea?ls in when they file substantive appeals which they wish to file against the Court of Appeal’s judgment delivered on Thursday.
The appellants led by Biyi Poroye are the state executives of the Sheriff faction of the party in the various states in the South-West zone, are backing Jimoh Ibrahim, who was only removed and replaced with Jegede as the party’s governorship candidate in Ondo State by the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal, Abuja on Wednesday.
The appellants’ lawyer, Mr. Beluolisa Nwofor (SAN), told the apex court on Thursday that he had not been able to file an appeal against the Wednesday’s judgment of the Court of Appeal because copies of the judgment had not been ready.
Governor Segun Mimiko addressing the press after the Court of Appeal handed his candidate victory
The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has called on the National Judicial Council to “save the judiciary by sacking Justice Okon Abang.”
Fayose, in his reaction to the Appeal Court judgment, which nullified Abang’s ruling of the October 14, 2016 and declared it as a fraud, said, “it is obvious that Justice Abang is representing the interests of some cabals.”
In a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said, “In the face of these indictments by the appellate court, the NJC must wade in and save the judiciary from Abang.”
Fayose added, “…Today again, three justices of the appeal court descended on Justice Abang, describing his judgments imposing Jimoh Ibrahim as the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate in Ondo State and the one affirming Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as the PDP National Chairman as fraudulent.
“It should be recalled that in June, a five-member panel of the court of appeal led by Justice Morenike Ogunwumiju said Abang ‘raped democracy’ when he annulled the election of Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, and ordered INEC to issue a certificate of return to Mr. Uche Ogah without evidence of forgery against Dr. Ikpeazu. The court went on to say that Abang embarked on a wild goose chase and that he spoke from both sides of his mouth.
“These are clear indictments on Justice Abang and in a civilised society, he ought to have resigned without the prompting of anyone. Or how can a judge that has been adjudged severally as giving fraudulent judgments and acting like Father Christmas still sit in judgment over cases involving Nigerians?
“The NJC must do the needful by sacking him forthwith so that the bench can have a new lease of life.”
Fayose commended the Appeal Court for declaring Eyitayo Jegede as the candidate of the PDP for the Ondo governorship poll.
He, however, said it was late for the party to make a meaningful impact in the election.
In another interview, Fayose, who backed the call for the Independent National Electoral Commission to postpone the Ondo election, said that was the best thing to do in the circumstance.
Fayose said, “The judgement shouldn’t have been otherwise, because you can’t cover the truth. I have said it ab initio that charlatans in the PDP are colluding with INEC and the APC to undermine our party.”
The candidate of the Ali Modu Sheriff faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, Jimoh Ibrahim, has reacted to Wednesday’s Appeal Court ruling sacking him as the party’s candidate in Saturday’s Ondo governorship election.
The Court of Appeal replaced Mr. Ibrahim with Eyitayo Jegede, candidate of the Ahmed Makarfi faction of the party.
But Mr. Ibrahim said he was certain of getting justice at the Supreme Court.
Mr. Ibrahim accused the incumbent governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, of paying for the judgment with the state treasury.
“I have read the decision of the Court of Appeal delivered today.
“We have nothing to lose as the Supreme Court sits on the same case tomorrow.
“We shall get justice at the Supreme Court and if PDP wins Saturday election we shall have our four years mandate to rule Ondo State,’’ Mr. Ibrahim said.
Meanwhile, the Ahmed Makarfi-led faction has commended the Court of Appeal for its judgment.
Dayo Adeyeye, the National Publicity Secretary of the faction, said the judgment was proof that what transpired at the lower court was miscarriage of justice.
Mr. Adeyeye made the remark in a statement on Tuesday.
The Court of Appeal panel led by Justice Ibrahim Salauwa on Tuesday set aside the ruling of Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court recognising Jimoh Ibrahim as PDP candidate in the Ondo state guber poll.
The Appeal Court also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to replace Mr. Ibrahim’s name with Eyitayo Jegede.
Mr. Adeyeye said the party appreciated the Nigerian judiciary for “standing behind truth as it affects the attempt by enemies within working in consonance with some jittery and desperate opposition members.’’
He said the aim of the enemies of the party was to thwart PDP’s participation in the Ondo State governorship election.
Mr. Adeyeye said the judgments delivered by the Supreme Court and that of the Court of Appeal had rekindled the hope of the common man in the judiciary.
He said: “This shows that justice might be delayed, but will surely come provided the oppressed refuse to give up on his rights.
“The judgment delivered by the Justice Salauwa-led Appeal Court Panel which returned the validly elected candidate of our party, to his rightful place was expected.
“It was expected because we were sure that the travesty of justice carried out at the lower court will in any sane society, not stand the test of time.’’
Mr. Adeyeye added that it was gratifying to note that all the seven issues before the Appeal panel as relates to the illegal substitution of the factions’ candidate, were decided in favour of Mr. Jegede.
“This goes to prove that what transpired at the lower court was a miscarriage of justice.”
Mr. Adeyeye expressed hope that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would toe the line of the Court of Appeal by postponing the Saturday election by a minimum of two weeks.
He said the postponement would allow the faction’s candidate to inform the people of the state his programmes for them through campaigns.
The Court of Appeal Special Panel on the Ondo State governorship poll has fixed 12noon on Wednesday (today) to deliver ruling on the tussle over who the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the election will be The Eagle Online has reported.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the Court of Appeal the go ahead to deliver the ruling.
The tussle is between Jimoh Ibrahim and Eyitayo Jegede.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had recognised Ibrahim as the candidate based on the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, on Monday said he visited President Muhammadu Buhari for the second time to brief him on the security situation in Ondo state ahead of November 26 gubernatorial election.
Mimiko spoke with State House correspondents shortly after meeting with Buhari for the second time inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, since the crisis over the PDP candidate started.
He said the purpose of his two meetings with the President was to brief him on the security situation in his state ahead of the elections.
The governor said, “This is my second visit to the Villa since this crisis in our party started. Like I said, as the Chief Security Officer of my state, if there is any credible threat to security, I owe the responsibility to Nigerians to apprise Mr. President of what is going on in the state.
“Mr. President was in my state to campaign for his party. I extended to him the courtesy of receiving him at the airport and seeing him off as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not as APC (member).
“I understand that people have speculated that this means I am going to APC. There is nothing of such. I only extended him normal courtesy that protocols demand.
Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has vowed never to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), despite the controversy surrounding which candidate will fly the flag of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the state governorship election this Saturday.
Mimiko also explained that he extended courtesy to President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited on Saturday , because of his position as the president and not the party he belongs.
He was speaking with State House correspondents, shortly after meeting with Buhari for the second time inside the Presidential Villa on Monday
Mimiko insisted he was only there, to brief him on the state of security in Ondo, ahead of the elections this weekend.
He said: “This is my second visit to the Villa since this crisis in our party started. Like I said, as the Chief Security Officer of my state, if there is any credible threat to security, I owe the responsibility to Nigerians to apprise Mr. President of what is going on in the state.
“Mr. President was in my state to campaign for his party. I extended to him the courtesy of receiving him at the airport and seeing him off as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, not as APC (member).
“I understand that people have speculated that this means I am going to APC. There is nothing of such. I only extended him normal courtesy that protocols demand.
“As a governor and Chief Security Officer of the state, if the President is visiting, no matter the party he belongs to, it is only appropriate for me to extend the courtesy to him. That was what I did in Akure.
“And I have also come to brief him about the security situation in my state.”
A panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja is today set to deliver a ruling in a rushed court proceeding aimed at restoring Eyitayo Jegede of the Makarfi-led faction of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as the party’s authentic candidate in next weekend’s governorship election in the state.
SaharaReporters learned that the appellate court panel would at noon today deliver a judgment that suits Governor Segun Mimiko. A legal source close to controversial businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim, told SaharaReporters that the governor had bribed judges through his lawyers. A Federal High Court judge, Justice Okon Abang, had earlier ruled that Mr. Ibrahim, who was chosen by the Modu Sheriff-led faction of the PDP as the PDP’s legitimate governorship candidate.
Mr. Mimiko and his favored candidate, Mr. Jegede, appealed Justice Abang’s ruling at the Court of Appeal. The case was mired in controversy as an earlier panel of the Court of Appeal set up to review Justice Abang’s ruling was inexplicably dissolved.
One lawyer involved in the case said Governor Mimiko “has been running from pillar to pole seeking ways to bribe judges at the Court of Appeal in Abuja to reverse the order of the lower court.”
Several sources in Ondo State told SaharaReporters that Mr. Mimiko temporarily relocated to Abuja to press all the political and legal buttons to ensure that Mr. Jegede was declared the authentic governorship candidate. One source claimed the governor had openly bragged to his supporters in Akure, the state capital, that he would get his wish.
Mr. Mimiko is a veteran of legal battles over political issues. After losing a controversial governorship election to the late Olusegun Agagu of the PDP in 2007, Mr. Mimiko, who ran on the ticket of Labor Party, had mobilized lawyers to contest his loss. Through the financial backing of Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the current national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Mimiko prevailed in court. An appellate court panel ruled in his favor, and he was installed as governor on February 23, 2009.
A political source in Ondo State claimed that, once Mr. Mimiko receives his desired ruling from the Court of Appeal today, the governor would instigate acts of violence throughout the state to ensure the postponement of the election that is already billed for next Saturday. The source said the governor and Mr. Jegede want extra time to mobilize for the campaigns, adding that the feud between the two factions of the PDP had weakened the party.
A new political party which will aim to wrest control of the polity from the duo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is on its way, various sources privy to the development told Pulse last weekend.
“That political party will be such a strong force and it’s one Nigerians will immediately embrace”, once source revealed to this medium over Pizza on a sunny afternoon in the nation’s commercial capital of Lagos.
Various other political heavyweights in the country have revealed to Pulse that an alignment and realignment of political forces in the nation is currently underway.
“Meetings are being held in the major cities in each geopolitical zone and very soon, we’ll have that party”, one prominent politician in the South West, told Pulse.
“We just held one of our meetings in Lagos last week and we’ve been holding series of these kinds of meetings as we try to put this political party together”, added the prominent politician who’s been part of these gatherings at the highest levels.
Some of the chaps floating this new political party disclosed to Pulse that they’ll be capitalizing on the poor performance of the APC at the center to make their case before Nigerians.
It’s a strategy they are hoping can be pulled off.
“As you are aware, the APC at the center has been struggling with the economy”, said one Northern politician who spoke to Pulse over the phone. “If things continue the way there are, well into 2017; and given the type of manifesto and programs we’ll present to Nigerians; given the pedigree of the politicians who’ll be selling this party to Nigerians, I can tell you that we’ll displace APC at the center come 2019”, he added confidently.
Some of the politicians spoken to for this story, would not reveal to Pulse the identity of the heavyweights behind this ‘third force’, except to say that the new party will be run by upwardly mobile and young politicians; some of whom are no strangers to the nation’s topsy-turvy political terrain.
“We’ll be a party of the young and old. Unlike the APC and PDP, we’ll actually allow younger Nigerians have a say in the affairs of our party. In the first quarter of 2017, Nigerians will be proud to have a party they can call theirs,” offered another politician.
It also looks like a pretty good time to usher in another political party— with the APC and PDP battling different forms of internal crises.
APC heads into the Ondo governorship election, not throwing its full weight behind standard bearer, Oluwarotimi Akerodolu.
Indeed, APC leader and strongman of South West politics, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no fan of Akerodolu.
Tinubu’s candidate for the election, Olusegun Abraham lost out in the party primaries.
So miffed was Tinubu about not having his way in Ondo, the Jagaban of Borgu called on APC Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun to throw in the towel for allegedly rigging the primary contest in Akerodolu’s favour.
Tinubu’s letter was so scathing and vitriolic, Oyegun needed a few more days to pen his response.
Grapevine reports suggest that Tinubu will be pulling the rug from under the APC’s feet by no longer bankrolling the party he helped forge together.
Last weekend, a few loyalists of Tinubu’s took to the streets to say the Buhari Presidency has treated the former Lagos Governor badly in spite of all he’s done for the party.
“The man that started the whole revolution (Tinubu) is now being rubbished because of the inordinate ambition of very few members of the party. They want to destroy the party and that is why we are concerned about what is going on. If we allow a few people to truncate what we fought for, then the promise made to Nigerians would not be fulfilled”, lamented Henry Ajomale who is the APC Chairman in Lagos.
Olusola Oke who is flying the flag of the AD in the Ondo governorship election, is now assured Tinubu’s support, sources close to The Jagaban have told Pulse.
Oke’s social media campaign has since been taken over by a crop of young men and women who swear by Tinubu.
Tinubu was also ominously absent during the campaign launch of the APC in Ondo–a move that political pundits have linked to the man’s growing desire to severe ties with his party, at least behind the scenes.
“He’s no longer playing an active role in the APC”, said one APC chieftain who craved anonymity for this story. “First, his candidate, James Faleke was badly treated in Kogi and you all saw what happened in Ondo. If Tinubu can no longer have a say in how the APC is run, he’d better keep his distance”, the chieftain lamented.
The PDP isn’t faring any better. It has paraded two chairmen in Ahmed Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff, since the turn of the year. It went into the Edo governorship contest with two candidates before eventually settling for one on the eve of voting; and it is playing a similar, disoriented card as it heads into the Ondo governorship election.
It is this disharmony in the two biggest political camps in the country, which the incoming ‘third force’ intends to latch on into reckoning.
The ‘third force’ guys think they are savvy enough to spot a fertile political field when they see one.
The All Progressives Congress in Ondo State on Tuesday alleged that the outgoing governor, Olusegun Mimiko was trying to divert government funds during the last few weeks of his tenure.
In a statement by the publicity secretary of the party, Omo’ba Abayomi Adesanya, the APC said the governors was awarding huge contracts to his friends.
He said, “The outgoing Governor Olusegun Mimiko has concluded plans to award contracts worth N62bn between November 2016 and February 2017 when he would be vacating office as the Chief Executive Officer of the State.
“Among the contracts to be awarded is the 28KM ABOTO-ATIJERE road, in Ilaje Local Government Area of the state, to the cost of N12bn, given to ZHIJIANG Construction Company Ltd, that Governor Mimiko will sign-off this week without bidding.
“The Governor’s plans is to pay 75 per cent upfront of the total contract sum without following due process as a way to embezzle the state fund and leave the treasury empty for the successor government. This is against the social contract he swore with the people.
“We were reliably informed that ZHIJIANG Construction Company Ltd is owned by a close ally of the Governor but in a matter of days, our investigation will confirm this among other corrupt plans of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko to plunge our state into serious financial debt after his tenure.”
The Ondo State Chapter of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) has called on security agencies in the State to hold the State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko responsible for any fresh breach of peace in the State.
AD in a release in Akure signed by its Secretary, Dr Sola Agboola on Monday alleged that Governor has surreptitiously begun another round of the planned breach of public peace and security in his bid to cause confusion and create a semblance of insecurity.
He said: “This is to facilitate his plans for the postponement of the Governorship Election coming up on November 26.”It will be recalled that Governor Mimiko who had been away from the State to Abuja for upward of two weeks in his prosecution of his Court case against the removal of the name of his Candidate for the election, Mr Eyitayo Jegede from the ballot paper, came back at the weekend.
“On Sunday, he addressed his supporters at the International Event Centre (The Dome) where he amongst others urged them to brace up for another rounds of protests in the State to force the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the election thus buying them time with to prosecute their Court case.
“While we are not opposed to his getting justice at the Court, which we believe is his fundamental right, it is however an irony that a man saddled with the onerous responsibilities as the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of the State is now the very one behind sponsored mayhem in the very state he governs all because of politics.
“This is to threaten the peace and security he professes to uphold at all times when he took his Oath of Office.”
The AD therefore, called on the security agencies in the State to be abreast of this “grand plot” by the governor and be abreast of this latest attempt by Governor Mimiko to sacrifice the lives, properties and peace of Ondo State on the altar of politics.
The Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has declared that governorship election will not take place in the state on November 26, 2016 if the issue of the candidacy of the Peoples Democratic Party was not resolved.
The governor expressed the assurance that the candidate of the Ahmed Makarfi’s faction of the party, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), would contest the election.
He said, “I don’t know how they will do it, it is impossible for them to deny us our right. Justice will stand and Jegede will contest this election. Election can’t take place in Ondo State without the PDP.”
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State on Monday in Abuja enjoined Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State to stop running to President Muhammadu Buhari for solution to the internal problems of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party.
Lalong said this while speaking to State House correspondents after he formally presented Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, the All Progressives Congress’s gubernatorial candidate in Ondo State, to President Buhari.
According to him, Buhari is the President of Nigeria and not a PDP member or chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He said: “Let me say it was even wrong for them to start running to Mr. President to help them solve the problem of PDP in their party.
“Mr. President is the President of Nigeria and he is not a member of PDP.
“Even when we have problems in APC, we don’t run to Mr. President.
“If he (Mimiko) has a problem in his state, he is the governor, let him stay there and resolve the matter.
“It is a matter between PDP and PDP and those matters are in court.
“So, why should you run to the President?
“Is the President the Chief Judge of Nigeria?
“He is not the INEC chairman either.”
Lalong, who is the Chairman of the APC Governorship Campaign in Ondo State, revealed that President Buhari had endorsed the candidature of Akeredolu as the APC candidate for the election.
It was amusing seeing the pictures of Governor Olusegun Mimiko at the Presidential Villa last Friday. Not that he does not have the right to visit the president; he does, particularly with our warped federal structure wherein states are more of appendages than federating units. But his reason for the visit was funny, to say the least. The visit was like pounding on anvil that gave off no sparks, especially with his request that the president intervenes in the raging fire in Ondo State.
Mimiko is an astute politician, a great mobiliser of people and resources towards a particular goal. One does not fight former president Olusegun Obasanjo politically and beat him if he is not a strong politician and maybe only him and former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, have been able to dust the ebora Owu on the political field while he held sway between 1999 and 2007. A former minister told the story of how they were unable to persuade Mimiko not to leave the federal cabinet in order to become the Ondo governor, why leaving for uncertainty, they asked him. Iroko, as he is known, however, stuck to his guns and resigned as housing minister to contest the April 14, 2007 elections. He recalled how Obasanjo was apoplectic with rage at the cabinet meeting where Mimiko tendered his resignation letter threatening that he would ‘deal with him’ but Iroko kept quiet.
A colleague who covered the governorship election for a foreign broadcast organisation spoke of how Mimiko was well loved by the people that everywhere he went with his crew, they saw how difficult it would be for the late Segun Agagu to beat him. Incredibly, INEC declared Agagu the winner but Mimiko went to court and on February 23, 2009, the Appeal Court ruled that he was the winner paving the way for him to become the first and only Labour Party member to win a gubernatorial election in our country. He assumed office the next day. On October 2, 2014 he switched to PDP after securing another term and thereby becoming the first governor in the state history to win a second term. So, as we say in Nigeria, ‘he is very much on the ground.’
But how did the 62-year old medical doctor find himself in a political mess that he has to seek refuge from a president he barely tolerates? What happened that his anointed candidate, Eyitayo Jegede, a senior advocate, did not foresee the legal landmines and thereby prepare well on how to navigate such? How come the hunter is now the hunted? More annoyingly, the ‘PDP candidate’ recognized by INEC is a corporate undertaker with many companies or corporations dying under his watch than surviving. And that’s where INEC comes into the picture. It is interesting that the electoral body, which recognized the Ahmed Makarfi faction before the Edo State governorship election, decided not to recognize it now. Though there is the other matter that it was the state executive that Mimiko allegedly sidelined before the primaries that has been recognized now by INEC. An important observation, however, is that what do we make of INEC’s presence at the primary where Jegede emerged? On what basis was the attendance if that faction was not authentic?
Too often we do not focus on two critical players in our democratic journey as a country, INEC and the judiciary. As a country, we place so much emphasis on election that governance suffers because of it. While no one knows how the saga involving our judges will end, it is instructive that electoral victories are won in courts now more than at polling booths. What is INEC doing wrongly that candidates are seemingly more interested in going to courts after elections? Even while violence should be condemned emphatically, INEC should not push citizens into thinking it is an option. By the way, whatever happened to some withheld results after the Rivers State election by INEC? Some judgments too are baffling that even lawyers are confused on the reasoning behind them, much more disconcerting are even the judgments of the highest court in the land.
Good enough that there is an appeal on this issue but what happens if the court does not rule in favour of the Iroko faction? That’s why we should all be worried about the protests rocking the Ondo State capital. Dissent remains an integral part of democracy, but violence should be abhorred. Citizens should be free to make their grievances known in orderly and peaceful manner without killing. There’s still the unresolved matter of the accusation leveled against INEC by Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim wherein he said that some officials of the electoral body demanded for a bribe from him in foreign currency, I think that’s worth probing. It may be that it played a role in what is happening in Ondo State presently.
As the people of Ondo State prepare to elect a new governor on Nov. 26, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state has accused Governor Olusegun Mimiko of plotting to cause mayhem.
The Ondo State chapter of APC, Mr Abayomi Adesanya, made the allegation in a statement in Akure on Sunday.
“We have been reliably informed of the intense mobilisation of thugs and militants, running into thousands, by the Executive Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko,’’ Adesanya said.
He alleged that the governor intended to use the recruits to ‘’protest and unleash terror on the good people of the state from Monday, Oct. 31, in Akure, Ondo, Akoko areas and Owo, Ore and Okitipupa.
He alleged that Mimiko on Saturday started disbursing money to mobilise militants and hoodlums from Delta and Edo states as well as a faction of Oodua People’s Congress from Ekiti and Lagos states.
He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the security agencies to beef-up security in and around Ondo State till the governorship election was concluded.
Adesanya said that the people of the state were desirous of peace, which should not be disrupted by the few self-seeking individuals for political gains.
Reacting to the allegation, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Eni Akinsola, described the allegation as baseless.
“This is baseless allegation.
“In the last seven and a half years of Gov. Olusegun Mimiko’s administration, we have no history of violence.
” The people of Ondo State are capable of defending themselves and protecting their territory.
“We have the history of defending our votes and we do not have the history of depending on external forces and this will not be an exception,” Akinsola said.
NAN recalls the Ondo State has been under tension since the announcement of Mr Ibrahim Jimoh as the PDP candidate for the election.
Mimiko said on Friday that he had briefed the president of the danger in the decision by INEC and appealed to the people to remain calm.
President Muhammadu Buhari and Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko met behind closed-doors at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Governor Mimiko arrived the president’s office at about 11.00am.
It was gathered that Mimiko visited the Presidential Villa in respect of the Thursday’s declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission of Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the Ondo governorship election.
The INEC had removed the name of Eyitayo Jegede from the list of the candidates of the political parties that would participate in the November 26 governorship election and replaced it with Ibrahim.
The governor told State House reporters today shortly after meeting behind closed-doors with Buhari that the INEC’s action could cause a conflagration in the state.
The governor said there was no moral justification for what the INEC did describing Ibrahim’s declaration as injustice and mischief.
Mimiko said President Buhari promised him that he would look into the matter.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has been implicated in fresh corruption charges laid against Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State has accused embattled Governor Olusegun Mimiko of using N15b from the federation account to sponsor his election.
The APC also claimed that Goodluck Jonathan personally ordered the release of the funds to Mimiko for his re-election.
This is coming after former NSA adviser, Sambo Dasuki recently spoke about Goodluck Jonathan’s role in the arms deal procurement scam.
Dasuki had stated that the former President approved all expenses incurred by the NSA. It remains to be seen what this fresh accusation brought by the APC will mean for Goodluck Jonathan.
Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, will today, Thursday 16th June, speak at the 2016 Chatham House London Conference.
Mimiko will speak at a break-out session on “Healthcare For All: From Aspiration to Implementation”
According to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, over 60 speakers who come from highest levels of the business, policy and academic worlds will feature at this year’s London Conference.
Among these notable figures are Harmid Karzai, 12th President of Afghanistan, Robert Yates, Project Director, UHC Policy Forum, Global Health Security.
The Ondo State Football Agency (ODSFA) on Thursday said that plans had been concluded to begin the first female league and a goalkeepers’ academy in the state.
Dapo Ajibade, Executive Director of the agency, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Akure.
The unveiling ceremony is scheduled for March 8, at the Cultural Centre, Adegbemile, Akure.
Ajibade revealed that five progammes would be unveiled on the day, which are: the ODSFA goalkeepers’ academy, an U-15 Secondary School, the ODSFA / Ondo FA Female Football League, the ODSFA Beach Soccer League and the vODSFA Talent Discovery Tournament.
The goalkeepers’ academy would be set up to discover and nurture goalkeepers to world-class level, while the U-15 Secondary School Tournament would promote Education through Football.
The female football league would positively engage and empower the girl child, to safeguard the family.
The beach soccer idea will develop football in the riverine areas and channel the energies of the youths in the area to productive activities.
According to him, the NFF 1st Vice President, Mr Seyi Akinwunmi, the Technical Director of the NFF, Amodu Shuaibu, and former Super Eagles Goalkeeper and Coach, Ike Shorunmu, will grace the occasion.
Dr Rafiu Ladipo, President-General of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club is also expected at the occasion.
“Gov. Olusegun Mimiko will grace the occasion with political office holders, footballers, football administrators, coaches and many others. The Talent Discovery Tournament is to discover talented players at the grassroots, in a bid to discover the next Rising Stars,’’ Ajibade added.
A Federal High Court in Lagos has struck out a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by a former Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, to challenge his impeachment.
Justice Mohammed Idris, in a judgment on Thursday, held that Olanusi’s suit was an abuse of court processes, noting that the reliefs being sought were same as those in an earlier suit marked Ak/51/2015 still pending before an Ondo State High Court in Akure.
“The issues of the fundamental rights of the applicant were raised in that suit as in this suit. This cannot be allowed.
“The institution of the first action between the main parties or even similar parties on same subject matter simultaneously when the previous suit has not been disposed off constitutes an abuse of court processes.
“I therefore hold that this suit is filed in abuse of court processes in the light of suit numbered AK/51/2015,” Idris held.
The judge also held that he had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit and went on to fault the joining of the Inspector General of Police as a defendant, who, he said, played no role in Olanusi’s impeachment.
Idris upheld the submission by the Attorney General of Ondo State, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), who represented the first respondent in the suit, that “it is clear that the applicant merely joined the Inspector General of Police as a subterfuge to justify bringing this application before this court in an obvious situation of lack of jurisdiction.
“Making the Inspector General of Police as a respondent against all grains cannot salvage the situation.”
Idris, however, rejected Jegede’s argument that Olanusi filed his suit in breach of Order X Rule 1 of the fundamental rights enforcement procedure 2009.
Olanusi, who was impeached on April 27, 2015, had sued the IG and the chairman of the seven-man investigative panel which found him guilty of impeachable offences, Mr. Olatunji Adeniyan.
In his suit, which was transferred from the Akure Division of the Federal High Court to the Lagos Division, so that it could be urgently heard, Olanusi contended that the Adeniyan-led panel breached his fundamental right to fair hearing.
His lawyer, Mr. Olukoya Ogungbeje, claimed that “the sitting, conclusion of proceedings and submission of report by the panel within one day” denied Olanusi his right to fair hearing as enshrined in Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.
Olanusi claimed that the impeachment panel did not give him adequate time and facility to defend himself against the allegations of misconduct which he was found guilty of.
He also alleged that the Adeniyan-led panel failed to personally serve him with the notice of the allegation of misconduct before proceeding into hearing and reaching its verdict.
He therefore sought an order quashing the proceedings and the report of the Adeniyan-led seven-man impeachment panel which recommended him for impeachment.
He also sought an order nullifying his removal as the Ondo State Deputy Governor by the state House of Assembly on April 27, 2015.
But Adeniyan, through the Attorney General of Ondo State, Jegede, filed a notice of preliminary objection, urging the court to discountenance Olanusi and strike out his suit.
Jegede, who described Olanusi’s suit as an abuse of court processes, said the ex-deputy governor goofed by approaching the court through a fundamental right enforcement application to challenge his impeachment
Strong indications have emerged that crisis looms in the family of Governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP over the emergence of governor Olusegun Mimiko as Chairman of PDP Governors’ Forum, PDPGF, the umbrella body of the governors.
Olusegun Mimiko emerged the Chairman of PDPGF last week and vowed to engage President Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, APC in very constructive manner.
Governor Mimiko was elected Chairman of the Forum at the meeting, which was slated for 7pm last week Tuesday night and did not start until about 9pm, but came to a close at 12am last week Wednesday morning. The Ondo State governor replaced former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Senator Godswill Akpabio who was the first to occupy the position following the formation of the forum.
It was gathered yesterday that some PDP members were already kicking against the choice of Mimiko as the the Chairman of the Forum and as a way of protest, have also written a petition to the National Working Committee, NWC of the party to as a matter of urgency wade into the looming problem before it blows into an uncontrollable situation.
Six Governors and two Deputies who represented their governors were at the meeting, when he was elected,while governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State was conspicuously absent.
The newly-elected Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum, Gov. Olusegun Mimiko on Ondo State has said the party will regain power at the centre in 2019.
Mimiko, who spoke on Thursday during a mini reception organized to celebrate his election as the Chairman of the PDP governors, said the process of regaining power by the PDP had commenced. He said the PDP governors were determined to give the party a new face as the opposition party.
He stated that they have resolved to collectively work assiduously and excel in governance with a view to re-branding the party and selling it to all Nigerians.
Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has been elected the chairman the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governors’ forum.
Mr. Mimiko was elected at a meeting of the PDP governors in Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday.
The Ondo governor was deputy to the former chairman of the forum, Godswill Akpabio, the immediate past governor of Akwa Ibom State.
The coordinator of the PDP governors’ forum, Osaro Onaiwu, had told PREMIUM TIMES last week that there had been informal meetings where about nine of the governors agreed that Mr. Mimiko be their new chairman.
According to Mr. Onaiwu, an earlier meeting scheduled for last week was shelved as the governors were engaged in the negotiations and horse-trading with regards to the elections of the new leadership of the national assembly.
Many of South-Western Nigeria’s political figures today only wear Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s (COA’s) trademark cap but lack a great fraction of his mental strength and administrative acumen. Some even wear his eye-glasses as a pretentious similitude of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s eagle-likened vision that distinguished him among folks during and after his time of life but guess what, these political opportunists lack foresight. One thing is certain- COA influenced his immediate society. Like father, like son they say but there is a huge difference in this figure of speech. I begin to wonder reasons for the extreme mutation. Sir, On February 21st 2014, I wrote an article to you via Mr Japheth Omojuwa’s blog (www.omojuwa.com) under the caption “Dear Gov. Olusegun Mimiko, you are not working for the Ondo people.” Sir, this same article was again published in the letter category of the Punch’s newspaper on March 13th 2014 under the polemic tag “Sunshine State, stand up and be counted”. Also, on the 7th of March 2014, Sahara Reporters published in their article category the second part of “Oh ye Sunshine State, Stand up and be Counted (2)”. The intents and content of all these syndicated articles all wind up as to the mere fact that you are not working for the interest of your people. Sir, responses followed those critiques, as usual, mails were equally received by me in which many were of the opinion that you are not actually working for the people of the sunshine state. Mr Governor, from my thorough investigation, they are not from the opposition party neither do they hate you in person but they actually detest the fact that some of the same people whom you had sworn to protect their very interests are going to bed with empty stomachs. Those denied their legitimate entitlements are becoming irresponsible persons to their immediate families and even community. Sir, I checked the archives a while ago, I found out you owe pensioners their entitlement, you owe teachers two months’ salary already across the state. Succinctly, you owe almost everybody in the state one thing or another. Even, your responsible children are still being owed their little annual stipend of N100, 000.00 and N10, 000.00 respectively for year 2014. Sir, the scholarship merit award for year 2014 have not being received by the Ondo State students who applied, met the stipulated requirements and even wrote the Computer-based exam. Of which, it has been stated otherwise to public ears through the radio media that the payment of scholarship and even bursary was approved by you some weeks before the original date of the presidential elections in the country. Surprisingly, only a few students were even paid the bursary stipend of N 10,000.00 while the scholarship to worthy students has not been paid at all. This unfathomably neglect of the whole award poses a serious challenge on the integrity of you and your government even when N500.00 and N1000.00 respectively were used to register for these awards. Sir, as I have always believed, you are a poster-child of one of those cliques of public office bearers in Nigeria that do not joke with the virility of the media- it has even become crystal as you rarely grant too many interviews. All owing to the fact that you tend to lend credence to whatever you say outside politics but this time round, it goes against your usual norm, and so, I suspect a missing link between you, your government and the cheated students. Absolutely, something is wrong somewhere. it is either something is wrong with me or your government being managed by you but sir, the last time I checked, I was still in my perfect frame of mind. So, arguably, something is wrong with the other person aforementioned but then again before history would judge you sir, those printed lies of government must be taken back to the court of public hearing so that you can reverse the cloak and wear it with the lining on the outside or you provide the wherewithal to settle these cheated students. Once again sir, how the land lies is unequivocally deafening to the ears and sickening to the heart. Sir, comparing the debt profile of Osun state with Ondo state is utterly irrational. Lest we forget, there is a 13% derivation principle that governs the allocation of revenue to oil producing states as it was enshrined in the 1999 constitution, Osun state is not rich as Ondo state and yet the government of “I WILL WORK FOR YOU” still shamefully came out to say, Osun state is owing their workers 6 months’ salary while Ondo state lags behind the debt profile of Osun state which means the government is better that some states in terms of prompt payment of salaries to workers. This is a case in point that gives a formal confirmation that no civility in you or your government anymore. Sir, it seems to me that Ondo state is actually broke, not because there are capital projects being constructed around nor because more people were employed into civil service. Where then is our money? In clear terms sir, you are failing the people so seriously. Even in the last presidential elections, you saw how the “hungry and angry” Ondo state indigenes vested their anger on you by voting massively against your party (PDP). No money, but sir, it has become a public knowledge of how much was spent to prosecute the last House of Assembly elections in the state. So who is deceiving whom?
Now that the people of the Sunshine state lack in the midst of plenty, your monthly quality worth of security vote should become a part of the sacrifice to fix some of the burning issues in the present land of agony. Dr Mimiko, the people of the Sunshine state are not happy with you, please put sunny smiles on their faces once again.
Bio: Orukotan Ayomikun Samuel is currently a 500level student of the Federal University of Technology Akure, Ondo State
Orukotan Ayomikun Samuel writes from the Federal University of Technology Akure, Ondo via orukotanayomikun@yahoo.com
Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates
The Ondo State House of Assembly on Tuesday extended the tenure of the Interim Caretaker Chairmen of the state’s 18 Local Government Councils by six months.
The decision of the House was sequel to a motion moved by the Chairman, Committee on Chieftaincy Affairs, Afolabi Akinsiku, representing Ondo West 1 constituency.
The motion titled, “Elongation of the Local Government Chairmen’s Tenure”, was seconded by Aladetan Oyebo, representing Ilaje 1 constituency.
The two lawmakers had argued that the elongation was necessary to forestall vacuum in governance and to afford people in the state unhindered access to good governance.
The six-month tenure of the council Chairmen, lapsed earlier in the month.
The Ondo state commissioner for Agriculture Alhaji Lasisi Oluboyo has been nominated as the new deputy governor of the state. This followed a letter written by the state governor Dr Olusegun Mimiko to the House of Assembly nominating him to replaced the impeached deputy governor Alhaji Ali Olanusi.
The State House of Assembly is, at the time of this report, sitting to approve the nominee.
Ahead of the governorship election, Governor Segun Mimiko of Ondo state has re-instated about 1,000 LGA workers laid off last year following discovery that their employment was “illegal”.
The government also announced that it has waived the outcome of the last promotional examination in the state to ensure that workers in its employment eligible for promotion are promoted.
What this means is that, workers not qualified will now be promoted all because of election.
In a statement issued by the Ondo State Commissioner for Information, Hon. Kayode Akinmade in Akure, about 50 workers each, from the 18 local governments in the state laid off following discovery that they were illegally employed, have been re-instated and the irregularities in their employment process corrected.
Government also said it has decided to promote every worker due for promotion irrespective of performance in the promotional examination conducted for them for the same purpose.
According to Hon. Akinmade, “The state Government has re-absorbed and properly employed about 1,000 local government workers identified to have been illegally employed during the last screening exercise in the state.
“The Governor has also ordered the promotion of workers due for promotion to the next level of their career without recourse to the result of the promotional examination earlier conducted for the same purpose.”
Civil servants in Ondo State, whose March salary was ‘borrowed’ by the state governor, Olusegun Mimiko, will have to wait for a long time for the salary as Governor Mimiko has planned to use the workers’ salary to prosecute Saturday’s House of Assembly election.
Mimiko, who has been distributing money to politicians in the state since last week, was desperate to control the majority in the state House of Assembly, but would face a titanic battle in achieving that feat.
The General Overseer of Faith and Victory Church, Akure, has predicted that Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State and his counterpart in Ekiti, Ayodele Fayose, will be impeached from office before the end of this year.
Prophet Oladipo, who predicted the victory of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Gen Mohammadu Buhari, said both Mimiko and Fayose have limited days left to spend in office as governors of their respective states.
In an exclusive interview with Sunday Sun, Prophet Oladipo insisted that Fayose would be impeached in six month’s time and his Ondo State counterpart in December this year.
According to him, Governor Mimiko had disappointed God who put him in the office and as such no amount of prayer could forestall his removal before the end of this year. His words:
“God has revealed to me that Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, will be impeached before the end of this year. Fayose will be sent packing from the government house before the end of this year.”
“I predicted that Fayose would win the governorship election in Ekiti State and he won. But this time around, God has said that he would be impeached from office and there is nothing he can do to prevent the fulfillment of that prediction. Either he agrees with me or not, Fayose is going to be impeached because God has said it,” he stressed.
He, however, advised Mimiko to be prayerful to avert the looming impeachment. He said: “If Mimiko can pray very well, God can still have mercy on him because he is a beloved child of the Almighty God. But if he fails to pray, he will be impeached before December this year.”
Finally, the bubble burst on Tuesday, January 13 in Akure, the Ondo State capital, as some politicians known as the Agagu Boys defected from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.
This development, though a big shock, but was dismissed by the State PDP, which said their defection was long overdue. Reports had it that the late former governor Dr. Olusegun Agagu, before his demise had been fraternizing with the leadership of the APC.
The late Agagu at some point was alleged to have met with the national leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu several times on the possibility to collaborate. The information leaked to the leadership of the PDP and Agagu was said to be sidelined on matters of the state, as Mimiko dictated the tune, even while in his former Party. Then, Agagu and his boys were tagged PDP Jagaban.
However, with the death of Agagu and the development which led to Mimiko defection to the PDP, the Agagu boys became threatened and uncomfortable with his leadership of the party.
Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko has described the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as a perpetual failure because he does not belong to this generation.
Mimiko, who recently defected to the PDP from Labour Party, said Nigerians would not elect Buhari as president because he cannot operate computer.
Addressing supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, at the party’s presidential campaign rally in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Mimiko said Nigerians were looking for a well-educated president who would drive development in the country.
“They don’t belong to this generation. Some of them cannot even click a computer yet they want to be president in Nigeria in 21st century. We say no. We say no, I don’t have much to say. We want a 21st century compliant president”, he said as the crowd cheered.
Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on Tuesday said whether the All Progressives Congress picks its presidential candidate’s running mate from the South West or not, the zone would vote massively for President Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 elections.
He said the forthcoming presidential elections would be about real issues and not about the propaganda being spread by members of the opposition party.
The governor spoke with State House correspondents shortly after attending a function at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Mimiko boasted that people from the South West know their onions when talking about enlightenment and in terms of long history of progressive political engagement.
He recalled that during the 2011 elections when there was no Peoples Democratic Party governor in the South West, Jonathan won in all the states in the region except one.
He said, “We are waiting for APC to get their candidate but there is no question about the fact that in terms of, I am saying this with all sense of humility, enlightenment especially in appreciation of issues of politics, in terms of long history of progressive political engagement, you give it to South West that they know their onions.
“Don’t forget that even in 2011 when Mr. President did not have any governor in the South West, he won in all the South West states apart from one.
“And I tell you, in the South West, we can sift issues from propaganda. We know the difference between propaganda and the real stuff.
“I have no doubt in my mind that the South West will vote for President Jonathan to continue along this path of very useful engagement and productive government.”
In a separate interview, Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State berated a former Minister of State, Industry, Trade and Investment, Samuel Ortom, for dumping the PDP after failing to clinch the party’s governorship ticket in his state.
He said the development only confirmed that many politicians lack principles and ideologies, describing it as unfortunate.
He said, “People have no principles and ideologies, they just go into politics for what they can get. I think that is very unfortunate.
“The (former) minister in question has been a great beneficiary of the PDP. And the most transparent primary was held in Benue State that is why no one is complaining about the primaries.
“Some people just want position and once they do not get it, they swing. So, I find that very unfortunate. That is why we are having the problem we are having with politics in Nigeria.
“The other parties just wait for the other parties to conduct primaries so that when they have problem, they will just take them in.
“If we continue to practise politics in that manner, I do not think that we can grow. We will not get anywhere because there is no philosophy behind what we do. We are just operating like pendulum. If it does not work this way, we will move this way. That is not good.
“If they don’t get nomination in PDP, they will move to APC and if they do not get in APC, they will move to Labour Party, etc, I think that instead of us growing our democracy, we cannot go anywhere with this kind of politics.”
Suswam said politicians who defect from one party to the other only wanted political offices for selfish reasons.
He said those who are committed to genuine service would know that if they did not win this time, they might win another time.
“They just want position not to serve but for selfish reasons. If you want to serve, if you do not get it today you will wait for the next time.
“This kind of politics comes out of desperation for power. It is out of desperation that they move from one party to another.
“If you are not desperate, then what is it? You have been a Senator before later you became a Minister, you have been Auditor and you have been everything.
“Why will you defect from the party that has done so much for you? It is because they are desperate for power for selfish reasons not to serve the people. With this trend, I don’t think that politically, we will grow in this country,” the governor added.
Reports has it that, Governor Olusegun Mimiko has officially dumped the Labour Party (LP) for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Sources said Mimiko, who got to power in 2009 under the platform of the LP made the declaration at the PDP Secretariat in Abuja.
A story published by National mirror earlier reported that the governor would declare for the party in Abuja today.
The report added that, the Senate President, David Mark had earlier met with PDP stakeholders from Ondo State on how Mimiko would be received.
It was learnt that the 50-50 sharing formula that sealed the negotiation received mix reaction as some of the elders accepted it, while others kicked, saying Mimiko should not be given the party’s structure.
“Jimoh hails from the South. He campaigned vigorously and convinced the people to vote for him. But alas Mimiko will not allow him carry the party flag.
