The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mimiko

  • Questions for Mimiko

    SIR: Despite many harsh and unreasonable policies of his government, I have always surmounted the temptation of assuming the figure of critic of the Governor Olusegun Mimiko-led administration in Ondo State. Alternatively, I have consistently offered suggestions and constructive criticisms via close acquaintances who serve in the government. However, since this is the era of false alarm, the government must hear some open truths.

    For instance, I don’t know what sense to make of a government policy to build ‘mega’ primary schools at the cost of N3.2billion each. As fantastic as the idea seems, it is wasteful and has failed to solve any of the challenges confronting primary education in Ondo State. On the construction of about 36 of such primary schools, the Mimiko-led government wasted a huge N120billion. The lame defence tendered by the government the other time was that the idea is to protect the children of the poor and to make the children of both the poor and the rich study under one roof. Dr Mimiko got it wrong. Class segregation is hardly an issue with primary education in Ondo State. The challenges remain: lack of adequate teachers, shortage of qualified teachers, indiscipline on the part of both teachers and pupils, lack of culture of periodic training for teachers, poor monitoring and oversight functions on the activities of primary schools, and poor funding amongst others. I am afraid the N120billion wasted on few buildings has not addressed any of the highlighted challenges. If the huge N120billion was channelled to the creation of small businesses in Ondo State, Governor Mimiko himself will be amazed and flabbergasted at the enormous rich families he would have created.

    Also, I cannot fathom why any responsible government will abandon the ýreticulation project of Owena Multipurpose Water Dam. This is a project that was designed to supply water to six local governments of Akure North, Akure South, Ifedore, Idanre, Ondo West and Ondo East. The project was awarded by the administration of the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu and contractors have been on site until Dr Mimiko terminated the contract. The defence from the government was that the contract lacked route survey. Nigerians, let’s even concede without admitting the no-route-survey excuse. The government claimed the project lacked route survey in 2009. Six years after, nothing significant has happened. For God’s sake, how many years will it take the Mimiko-led administration to do a route survey and mobilise contractors to site? Those who have been writing and sponsored to write about the development and miracle in Ondo State should know that drinkable water is still a big issue in Akure, the state capital. The abandoned water reticulation project is, perhaps, the face of the development in Ondo State. No matter the propaganda and outright falsehood, the people can see through what they now call cosmetic development under the Mimiko-led administration.

    • Kayode Fakuyi,

    Okitipupa, Ondo Stateý.

  • Iyantan: Mimiko has misruled Ondo

    Iyantan: Mimiko has misruled Ondo

    Hon. Diran Iyantan is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State. In this interview with LEKE AKEREDOLU, he says the party will form the next government in the state.

    How prepared is your party for the coming governorship election?

    Well, from all indications, we are fully prepared. Especially when we know that much is expected from us by the people of Ondo State. The people of Ondo State are desperately yarning for change. They want a messiah that will liberate them and take them out of Egypt. Like exactly how Moses took the Israelites out of Egypt. There is no alternative than the APC now, considering all the political indicators. So, we cannot afford to fail the people of the state and we have taken all these things into cognizance since the inception of this bad government that has given so many traumas to the people of the state. We believe that we need to come out and rescue the state from the jaw of oppression and under-development unleashed on the people by this incumbent government. So, we have been putting our house in order and we have done a lot of things that have endeared us to the people of the state. In our party, if you look at the record available, in the Presidential election, we did tremendously well despite our limited resources, and despite the hostility of the defunct federal government to us, we managed to marshal our limited resources to sensitize the state and embarked on very aggrieve campaign that convince the people to vote for our Presidential candidate. So that is an indicator that the people are ready, to align with our political party now. Although, we have a temporary setback during the State Assembly election, which is known to everybody of the state because of the desperation of Mr. Governor, and the fear of being impeached, he deployed all the resources of the state into the election and the election was over monitised and other political antics were employed to get the people to return some of this members of the House of Assembly for him. Everybody in the state now laments the outcome of that election, but we don’t want to cry over spill milk. We think the most important is to put our house together and which we are doing now, and prepare for the governorship election.

    Do you think your party leadership has the strenghth to lead the party to victory?

    Yes, especially with the reality that Ondo State is like a two party state. If you juxtapose, you will discover that the first eleven by political rating are in the APC. When you look at the leadership of the party in the state, you will know that they are not comparable to the team of the PDP. The team of PDP is amateurish but when you look at the caliber of people staring the affairs of APC in Ondo State, and the way the party is organised, you will be convinced that we have a very beautiful team. We have these teams that are products of very rigorous search for quality will be able to take the party to electoral victory. Mere looking at the activities in the secretariat of the APC, you will know that this is secretariat of a functional vibrant political party where there is life compare to the PDP own that is always a silent graveyard where is no activity. When you look at the structures of the APC, they break into committees, they sensitised the people, they have think-tank that are dishing out very useful ideas for the party to implement. When you look at the caliber of people that constitute the EXCO of the state, and the efforts they have put into the business, you will know that we are more prepare than the other party. The leadership of our party, that is the state Chairman and he happens to be a political veteran, who is so familiar with the state and which he demonstrated in the last election and yielded a lot of positive results for the party. If we go by that performance and leverage on it, it is obvious that we are going to overwhelm the PDP in the next election.

    Don’t you think that Mimiko will come out with new ideas to defeat your party, thereby producing his successor?

    Yes, he will definitely come out with some orthodox strategies because he is master of antics and we know that it is force but I want us to face certain reality about life that no matter how smart you are, a time is coming that you need to submit to the superiority and wisdom of God. Mimiko may have been playing God because God in his mercy gave him a long rope to make amend and repent from his evil ways, but if he refuses to repent, he will perish. He is very close to his political waterloo now, because by all indications, he has exhausted all his political antiques and the state is now wiser especially when he has depleted all his resources, and the wealth of the state to the detriment of an average man of the street. Ondo state supposed to be in the committee of leaders of states in the system because of the tremendous wealth deposit by God in this state. Such state has no place to be among the backward states in Nigeria. It is very ironical and unfortunate that Ondo State that supposed to be head is now being relegated to tail by the sheer greed, callousness and insatiable urge and wants for ill-gotten wealth led by Governor Olusegun Mimko. The people of the state have been pushed to the wall and they are ready to counter any unwanted orthodox tactics to be used again in the coming election. So, the best thing is for the people to submit to the will of God and play the games according to the rules of the game.

    You have to know that it is a man that has always been capitalizing on the romance he has with centre. He has always been using that advantage to impoverish his own people here but now that the centre belongs to the more refined party. The man at the centre now, it is man that is neutral, it is a man that will not conduct any lawlessness or any other thing. This man, we allow the game to be played according to the rules. I can tell you that if there is a level playing ground, Mimiko will be humiliated going by the old Parlance he will lose is town.

    Are you saying the monitisation of election and stomach infrastructure will not determine the next governor of the state?

    Yes, money will not determine the election. That is one of Mimiko’s antiques where he deliberately impoverish the state so that people will become beggars and desperate. You know when a person is in need, little gratification may sway his mind and conscience. He has move to the extent that he has de-humanized the people of Ondo State. These people have made up their mind that they will restrict him and all antics of stomach infrastructure won’t work this time. We have interacted to the people of the state and we have gone round the state and discovered that the people have made up their minds and that it is an insult for somebody to come to them and starts giving them peanut in exchange for your future and for the future of their children and generation yet unborn. So, I want to assure you that out of conviction that people of the state have made up their mind that no any antic employ by the incumbent governor that will sway them to vote for his candidate in the coming governorship election.

    If Mimiko has his way and produce his own successor, does it has any implication for the state?

    God forbid because the implication is unimaginable. It is going to be palatable and unimaginable because it is going to be catastrophy if it happens, because if you look at what is on the ground in the state today, there is no any visible developmental project i.e Infrastructural development project. If you look, the state is dotted by poverty despite the state supposed to be among the committee of rich state considering the tremendous resources. We are the fifth largest oil producer in Nigeria; we have access to substantial derivation. They are other means of wealth in the state. So, Mimiko cannot harness all these to development of the state especially the time we can call the time of oil boom, the time he came in, there was almost and oil boom, the earning was very high. There was a time Ondo State earned so much that I can’t say the specific figure but it will be in the region of N50billlion and all these cannot be used for the development of the state. The hen that lay the golden egg, i.e the riverine area of the state, the people there are being de-huminised. If you go to the place you will see the index of poverty over there. You will discover that people can so thirsty in the midst of water. It is unfortunate and unrighteous that Mimiko is just laundering the money with some unpatriotic people from that area. So, there is no single project Mimiko has completed in the six and half years. There is no one single road that he has started and commissioned. So it is catastrophy, it is unfortunate that Mimiko who much was expected off could so much undeveloped the state because of greed and insatiable lost for wealth. I know that the resources of the state are being plundered and that they are not throwing to the sea but a certain pocket.

    But, you once served in the Mimiko’s administration. Why are you saying the government has performed badly?

    A:If you look at the take-off that precedence the tremendous acceptance of the man, you will know that it is was a little bit complimentary at the beginning. He started well, and that was probably the response to the revolution that brought him in because when he wanted to come in, his popularity swore to the highest level. Many people gave him unconditional support because he has no money, no godfather, and the only thing he has was the people of Ondo State, giving him consolidated solidarity. When he came in, we felt that we have succeeded in ushering in a government of the people that will restore hope, built a state and will bestow on us an egalitarian society that we work for. In the first two years he came in, he was doing marvelously well on the projects and programmes he embarked on. Some of us contributed to the rating then because of this saying that power corrupt, absolute power corrupt absolutely. By the time he was getting more consolidating, it was then that he started derailed. It is not that he didn’t start well, he started very well. For example when he came in, he awarded several contracts, Oba-Ile, Oyemekun, roads, Dome, he started Owo road, Ondo dualization he started so much projects simultaneously. So these gave the people hope in the government then, but along the line, something went wrong, suddenly there was a black out and things came to stand still.

     

     

     

     

    We thought there was a hiccup. That is was just a momentary setback but unfortunately it persistence and instead of improvement we started since this in all ramifications in the state. That was when the reality down on the people of the state that this man has defrauded us that he only started well just to consolidate so that he will be able to unleash his evil intention on the people of the state and some of us parted ways from him because of this reasons.

     

    Many aspirants may likely struggle for the ticket of your party, do you think the party will still be a formidable force after the emergence of a candidate?

     

    There is one thing I have learnt about Nigeria democracy, Nigerians want to express their democratic rights no matter the condition attach to it. By the time you give them the opportunity in a very free and fair environment, the participants will accept the outcome of such exercise, they will fill fulfill that they have tried their best, probably their best is not good but by the time you prevent them from doing so, you now build up a kind of anger in them that will lead to serious agitation and that agitation may result into division and that may resulting to failure. We have learnt our lesson with what demostrated in the last Presidential election. We have adopted primary as our own culture, it is an issue that is in integral part of our policy that in every contest there should be a free and fair primary. In the Presidential primary, we make it so beautiful that the whole world has the opportunity to watch live and it was so transparent, rancourless and aspirants were giving a level playing ground. About five people contested in the primary and there was so much speculation, especially in the camp of our opponent then, that the primary will divide us but by the grace of God and because of the transparency of the primary, everybody accepted and the other contestants congratulated the winner and also give their supports. So I am convince in Ondo state that no matter the numbers, if they are allowed to participate in a free and fair primary, they will all agreed with the outcome and deploy all their resources and structures to help the candidate. Characteristically, there is going to be a family undertaken that all of us are going to abide by the result and work for the candidate of the party.

     

    At the end, don’t you think money bag politicians may likely have their way?

     

    In our party, there is no such precedent. If you look at the presidential primary election, the poorest man among the aspirants emerged. Going back understand of every Nigerians about the contestants, we know that the man that emerged was the poorest person among them, in terms of money not in the term of wisdom. That is the indication that a revolution started that very day in Nigeria that it is not about money that this translated in the Presidential election when Jonathan opened the treasury of Nigeria for the election and yet lost the election. He was taken millions of dollars to the Obas, moving round the country like father Christmas and he was even empowering militants and some miscreants. He empowered them to the extent of having private jets, having millions in their account just because of  his desperation to win the election but all this boomerang and he lost the election to a man that has no money but has the people behind him. So, this will become a conspicuous norm in other elections within the polity. Coming down to Ondo State have since the sign of what happen in the central, happening in the state here. I have interacted with the people of the state, I have seen their determination, I have gaged their mind sets and preparedness to go for somebody that will be able to do good things for them. So, if there are any money bag politicians coming to participate in the primary, they are welcome, because they have their own role to play. They will come to stimulate actions, to contribute their own quotas by raising a little on the standard of living of the party members that have been impoverished by the incumbent government but I am very sure that will not change the minds of the delegates because they want somebody who can teach them how to fish not giving them fish.

     

    In the last governorship election in the state, Mimiko’s camp particularly used a political propaganda that the APC leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu is desperate to add the state to one of his cronies, what if the governor also use the same propaganda again, don’t you think that will make the people to also reject the candidate of APC?

     

    It is unfortunate that he bit the fingers that fed him, because he is on characteristic of the people of Ondo state not to be appreciative of their benefactors. That may open some kind of controversy about the paternal origin of some people and I am not advocating for a DNA analysis but I know that certain behavior can betray origin of some people. A Yoruba man is a grateful person. A Yoruba man is a highly appreciative person, rich in culture, there is this saying “that an ingrate is like an armbed robber” it is a very wide hostile comparison and that is mindset of a Yoruba man. It is very ironical that somebody that was helped to regain his mandate, somebody that was abandoned like a motherless baby was rescue by the magnanimity of somebody who was trying to rejuvenate his own race. I don’t want to call anybody a Messiah because it is Jesus Christ who is the Messiah but Tinubu a kind of person that personified the love that the bible preaches. When you demostrate love for your neigbour you have already permeated the mind of God. This is man that has given so much to mind kind. This is a man that has stood for his race when the Yoruba race was grossly marginalized; the man was the only man that stood to fight with his resources even exposing his life to danger to fight the cause of Yoruba race and succeeded in brings the Yoruba to rightful place in Nigeria politics. He succeeded in making the Yoruba the kingmakers in Nigeria again. In the Jonatan’s administration, the Yorubas were so grossly marginalized that among the first 50 big positions in Nigeria, there were only two Yoruba in inconsequential places. So, if Yoruba by the magnanimity of God was used to produce Jonathan that make him President and if they can be so much marginalised in his government, what would have been the faith of Yoruba if they have not struggle to put an end to that? So, at that time, Mimiko was unfairly treated by power that be, he won an election which was a revolution in the state because people were going to his rallies with pure waters, frying meat pie and others but at the end he disappointed them. When that mandate was stolen by the conservative horse, it was the responsibility of a Yoruba leader of Tinubu to rescue such mandate and restore it back to the legitimate owner. Tinubu was helping Mimiko not because he meant anything to him but because it was Yoruba issue and mandate and he Tinubu came in as proper Oduduwa descendant to rescue the mandate for Mimiko. But at the end, the response of Mimiko was unyorubaic. His response was alien to Yoruba culture. Ordinary the first thing is for you to be appreciateful but not to blackmail him. So he behave like a Jew of those times that will find excuse to destroy their best material. When Moses rescued a Jew that was being humiliated in Egypt and the cause of rescuing him, he accidentally killed the Egyptian and by the time he wanted to settle a Jew dispute after event, the people who were disputing agreed that nobody made him ruler over Israel that he should not kill them the way he killed the Egyptian. That was why he became a fugitive and ran away. That what was Mimiko did to Tinubu. The same helping hand Tinubu used to help Mimiko was that particular hand Mimiko use to blackmail him. Tinubu is a very content person, and Tinubu is a man that relates with both the rich and the poor, a man that you can enter is room freely. He is man that is on a mission to serve human kind. For you to have blackmailed such person vengeance is of the God and I know that all these things are his nemesis and he will soon meet his political waterloo in the next elections. He won’t survive it. So such things cannot happen again because the people of the state have seen the truth and they are very better about it that Mimiko deliberately blackmail Tinubu because he wanted to clinch on to power. In Yoruba states all the governors are giving testimonies that Tinubu has never asked them for a dime that even when they are in serious problem he will come to their aids and assistance. If Tinubu has been selfish, he would have preferred people like Atiku than Buhari as the Presidential candidate of APC and if he supported Atiku, Atiku would have won. If Tinubu is so greed, he would have preferred business as usual man like Atiku. So, such thing will not work again in Ondo State and if he says it people will mob him. If he goes to any rally and says anything about Tinubu people will mob him from that rally.

     

    You are from the Southern senatorial district of state and this place is known as PDP stronghold, do you think your party has the strength to break the PDP jinx in that area?

     

    We are doing a lot but the scenario will be better understand if we rewind a little chronology of this consolidation of PDP in that area. It was late Governor Olusegun Agagu, who started the whole thing. When Agagu came out powerfully in that area and the felt that he was fairy doing well and even he lost the first election to late Adebayo Adefarati in 1999, former President Obasanjo rehabilitated him with a powerful ministerial position and when he got that ministerial position, he came back to that area to established the party for his own gubernatorial ambition. So when he was in government he built so many people from that district, people like Olusola Oke, Kingsley Kuku, Femi Agagu, Kekemeke and these are young people that he built from that and these people by extension were working in their various places because of people patronage and that was why the party was strong in that area. You know for such planting of such tap root, you need a lot of efforts to be able to uproot the foundation and that is what we have been doing.

     

    Are you saying for APC to break the political strength of PDP in that district, APC chieftains in the area must be considered for top position in APC government in the centre?

     

    Yes we need political patronage, because it is obvious that in the whole senatorial areas of the state, it is only that place that we don’t have a major political officeholders in our own party. As at now, we don’t have a member of House of Assembly, House of Representative, a senator and we don’t have any serious political officeholders that will be able to galvanize and stimulate the party for electoral victory there. So, strategically, it should be expedient for the party to place political strategy in that place to be able to get that place. That is a very sensitive place because apart from being the food basket of the state, is also the second largest in terms of voters population and they are a lot of other sensitive issues because of the terrain. So such place should not be left in the hands of opposition to maneuver as they like. If you go by the last general election results, you will see that we have been bridging the gap and we know that if they are little impetus and push we will overtake the ruling party.

     

  • Ondo alleges plan to attack Mimiko

    Ondo alleges plan to attack Mimiko

    Ondo State Government has alleged plans by the state’s “enemies” to embark on “massive propaganda” to undermine Governor Olusegun Mimiko and his administration.

    Commissioner for Information Kayode  Akinmade, in a statement issued in Akure yesterday, said the state government had uncovered the planned attack, which, he claimed, has been scripted to begin with series of petitions against Mimiko  and his administration.

    Akinmade said the plan followed “several failed attempts by adversaries to indict the governor through petitions written against him to the Economic and  Financial Crime Commission (EFCC)”.

    He alleged that a meeting was held in Abuja in the house of a prominent Ondo politician, where a lawyer was assigned to write frivolous  petitions against Mimiko using framed up allegations, especially as it concerned the State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC).

    The commissioner said the “lawyer is expected to begin his assignment with a petition against the governor over what the meeting said should be another framed up allegations on the spending of funds allocated to the  agency”.

    He said a meeting also took place at the Lagos Airport hotel  few days ago, where lawyers and rights activists were recruited for a massive campaign Mimiko on radio, television, social media, and newspapers .

    Describing the plans as “ mere shadow chasing that  will fail like the previous ones”, Akinmade said Mimiko has become the subject of attack because of his role as a rallying point of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Akinmade said:  “Mimiko, who is no doubt, one of the most credible conscience of the PDP in this country and a reliable rallying-point for members of the party, will not be distracted by anybody or group who are out on political vendetta.”

  • Oke to Mimiko: stop distracting Buhari

    Oke to Mimiko: stop distracting Buhari

    AN Ondo State All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Chief Olusola Oke, yesterday urged Governor Olusegun Mimiko to allow President Muhammadu Buhari to concentrate on his administration’s “change agenda” for the nation’s transformation.

    He criticised the leaders of the Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly (SNPA) for not appreciating laudable efforts of the incumbent administration.

    At a recent meeting held in Akure, the state capital, the group through Mimiko called for the implementation of the report of the last National Conference.

    Oke, a lawyer and former National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said he would not have responded to the remarks of the Southern leaders, but for posterity sake.

    He said: “Mimiko has again started his deceit by seeking to divert the attention of the people of Ondo State from the ravaging issue of bad governance, poverty and unemployment, which are confronting the people.

    “Like it happened under President Goodluck Jonathan, he has engaged in another round of cheap diversionary propaganda anchored on a self-imposed leadership status he arrogated to himself, to distract President from the good job of redressing the injustice of the past and ameliorating the sufferings of the people.”

  • Our grouse against INEC chair, by Afenifere, Mimiko

    Our grouse against INEC chair, by Afenifere, Mimiko

    THE Yoruba social-cultural group, Afenifere, and Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko yesterday explained why the acting Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Mrs. Amina Zakari, must not be confirmed.

    They noted that Mrs. Zakari, besides being a close ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, was also from the same geo-political zone with him.

    Afenifere spoke through a communique issued after its monthly meeting at the home of its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

    It was read by its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin.

    The group said Mrs. Zakari’s affinity with Buhari would rob future elections of its credibility.

    The communique reads: “The appointment of the acting chairman is known to be controversial. The president is urged to form a full-fledged government by appointing his ministers as stipulated by the 1999 Constitution.

    “There is no provision in the constitution to run the country as a sole administrator. Inclusiveness and consultation are necessary and vital ingredients of our democratic order.”

    The group urged the president to set the necessary machinery in motion toward appointing an acceptable INEC Chairman.

    It urged the president to remember that Kogi, Edo, Bayelsa, Ekiti and Ondo governorship elections are around the corner, adding that there “is no enough time for anybody supervising the election to prepare”.

    “The constitution is clear that the role of the president is to nominate the INEC Chairman in consultation with the Council of State and forward the name to the Senate for clearance.

    “The constitution does not envisage the condition, where the president would either go to the INEC to either remove or appoint somebody in acting capacity, who has not been cleared by the Senate.

    “He should ensure that he looked for a credible Nigerian, who he will nominate for the Council of State as the Chairman of INEC,” the Afenifere said.

    Mimiko, who spoke at the meeting of Southern Nigerian Peoples Assembly in Akure yesterday, condemned Mrs. Zakari’s appointment.

    He said past electoral commission’s chairmen did not come from the same zone with the reigning president since the First Republic, saying the Buhari administration should not be an exception.

    “Mrs. Zakari is a close relative of Mr. President. This has never happened in the history of the country. In the past, the independence of INEC is not in doubt. We are already concerned. The electoral body must not be partisan.”

     ‘It’s too early to criticise Buhari’

    THE Ekiti State Chapter of Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, has declared that it is too early for a section of Nigerians to criticise President Muhammadu Buhari, who is barely three months in office.

    The body said Nigerians must support Buhari’s efforts to rid the country of corruption and clear the mess allegedly left behind by former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    It, however, faulted the position of the Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, who accused Buhari of ruling like a dictator and running a one-man show by not forming a cabinet since coming to power.

    The state chairman of Afenifere, Chief Ibidapo Awojolu, who spoke in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, said Buhari has given the country the right direction and showed that “he possesses the ability to offer quality leadership”.

    He maintained that the people of Ekiti State and the Yoruba were not opposed to Buhari, saying they remain important stakeholders in his administration and would never antagonise a government that was determined to take Nigeria out of the woods.

    Awojolu said the impression created by Fasoranti was incorrect and not in tandem with expectations of majority of Nigerians, who were happy with Buhari’s vision in enthroning probity, accountability and transparency in governance.

    He said: “Criticising Buhari is premature and too early in the day. He is not up to three months in office. How can you be criticising somebody who has four years to spend in office and be assessing his performance within three months?

    “The criticism is part of the inbuilt prejudice and antagonism they have against him, which started from the election period.

    “The Yoruba are not against Buhari and we want to say that nobody either as a person or a group should make other Nigerians believe that the Yoruba are against President Buhari.”In Ekiti State, majority of the people are in support of President Buhari and what he (Fasoranti) wants the whole Nigerians to believe is that the Yoruba are against Buhari and this is not true.

    “Buhari has performed creditably well in three months, we are not opposed to Buhari and Ekiti Afenifere with Senator Ayo Fasanmi as our leader will actively support the Federal Government under Buhari.

    “The impression being created by the national leader should be corrected. We are not opposed to Buhari. This is our government and we will give him all the support he needs to turn around the fortunes of this great nation.”

     

  • Mimiko warns workers on verification

    Mimiko warns workers on verification

    •Governor says those liable ‘ll face the law

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has warned the state’s workers that anybody found  to be criminally liable in the on-going verification would “face the wrath of the law”.

    Mimiko spoke yesterday during an unscheduled inspection visit to Oyemekun and C.A.C Grammar Schools in Akure, the state capital, where the exercise was being conducted.

    The governor noted that the verification would afford the state government the opportunity to clean up its payroll and eradicate sharp practices, which, he said, are detrimental to the government and the people.

    Mimiko, who explained that there were shortcomings in the state electronic data capturing system, said that the on-going exercise would clean up the payroll system and make some savings for government.

    The governor, who said over 80 per cent of tax payers in the state were public servants, appealed to eligible  citizens to exercise their civic responsibilities by paying their taxes and other levies so that his administration could continue to provide social services to the people.

    He hailed teachers for the support given to government officials assigned for the exercise, which, according to him, has aided its  smooth process.

    Mimiko added that his administration has embarked on financial engineering, which, he said, has assisted the state government to continue to pay workers salaries and fulfill its other responsibilities.

    “I got to know that there are some cases of impersonation in some places. Some of them have been arrested and handed over to the police. There is no question about the fact that anybody that is found to  be criminally liable in this exercise will be made to face the wrath of the law.

    “The whole idea is to clean up our payroll. Yes, we have electronic data capture and we added biometric to the electronic data capturing system, but you know this electronic system might not  be perfect. This exercise will afford us the opportunity to clean up the data at the end of this exercise. Some, who had retired in 2013/2014 still have their names on the payroll,” Mimiko said.

     

  • APC, PDP trade words over call for Mimiko’s impeachment

    APC, PDP trade words over call for Mimiko’s impeachment

    Ondo State All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-dominated State House of Assembly to impeach Governor Olusegun Mimiko over alleged non-implementation of budgetary allocation.

    It also accused the governor of deliberate killing of democratic institutions in local government areas.

    APC, in a statement by its spokesman, Omo’ba Abayomi Adesanya, said: “It is now peremptory for the Eighth Assembly lawmakers to commence the process of impeaching Governor Mimiko for misconduct, abuse of office and corruption.”

    These acts, according to the party, have destroyed every sector, department, ministries and agencies in the state.

    But the spokesman of the state PDP, Ayo Fadaka, described the call by APC as “petty and pedestrian”.

    Fadaka explained that the inability of the state government to conduct local council polls was because of the suit instituted by the former state executive of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), which has just been dispensed off.

    He said the alleged corruption levelled against the governor and some government officials has not been proved.

    Fadaka added: “It is just a mere rumour”.

    The APC said the call became imperative to salvage the state “from the imperial and dictatorial tendencies” of the governor, which, the party alleged, had plunged the state into serious indebtedness and untold hardship.

    The statement reads: “The lawmakers must, as a matter of urgency and importance, and for posterity, impeach Mimiko from office as Ondo State governor for his inability to account for close to N1 trillion that has accrued to the state as monthly allocations, local government allocations and oil derivation fund; N44 billion inherited from his predecessor (late Dr. Olusegun Agagu) and over N70 billion loans incurred by his administration in the last six years.”

    Adesanya urged the lawmakers to be exceptional and courageous in their determinations to rescue the state “from the claws of the governor”.

    He added: “We are aware that the leadership of the House has not changed from the rubber-stamp Seventh Assembly, but the lawmakers must realise that they represent the electorate that have been impoverished by the anti-people policies and programmes of Mimiko-led government.

    “We only advise you (honourable lawmakers) not to be dishonourable lawmakers by closing your eyes or pretend not to see all these atrocities committed and perpetrated by Mimiko to our dear state.”

  • Osinbajo, Aregbesola, Mimiko, others attend Sijuwade’s burial

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday led other dignitaries to Ile-Ife, Osun State, for the burial of Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade.

    Other public officials attending the monarch’s funeral are – Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, and his Ondo State counterpart, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.

    They were present at the interdenominational service held at Enuwa Square in front of the Ooni’s palace.

    The event was also attended by several traditional rulers and chiefs.

    In his sermon, the Bishop of Ife Diocese of Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Oluranti Odubogun, said despite his wealth, the revered monarch died at “the appointed time.”

    The bishop, who was represented by Very Rev. Olusola Akanbi, said Oba Sijuwade brought fame and popularity to his domain.

    He said the monarch’s demise demonstrated that every man will die irrespective of their status.

    Osinbajo in his speech said the Ooni lived an exemplary life.

     

  • Impeached Ondo deputy governor petitions EFCC against Mimiko

    Impeached Ondo deputy governor petitions EFCC against Mimiko

    •Olanusi: governor ‘is a personification of corruption’

    Impeached Ondo State Deputy Governor Ali Olanusi said yesterday he has written a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe allegations of corruption against Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

    He urged “indigenes and patriotic Nigerians to beam a searchlight” on the activities of the governor, alleging that he had derailed.

    The septuagenarian politician, who returned to his native Akoko with his associates, rejected the allegation of gross misconduct leveled against him, before he was impeached by the House of Assembly.

    Reiterating his innocence, Olanusi, who is now the leader of the state All Progressives Congress (APC), alleged that Mimiko was a personification of corruption.

    He told reporters in Lagos before departing home that Mimiko failed to paint him as a corrupt deputy after he rejected the governor’s plan to run Ondo State as a sole administrator.

    Olanusi said the “one-day impeachment drama” against him underscored the personality of the governor as a corrupt politician.

    The former deputy governor said if the anti-graft agency failed to investigate the allegations, the alleged looting would continue.

    Olanusi alleged that N80 billion debts and borrowing have pushed the state into stagnation.

    He urged the people, including civil servants, “to gird their loins”.

    The way forward, he added, was for the people to propose a closure to the “corruption of the government” and insist on the “recovery of the stolen and looted funds”.

    Olanusi added: “I urged civil servants and the people of Ondo State to help prevent further theft of our resources and step up this engagement by documenting credible reports of corruption going on in high places within the government.”

    The former deputy governor noted that his warnings and advice to the governor delayed the drift, stressing that the administration regressed into a gale of forgery and falsification of financial records and documents when he stopped listening to his wise counsels.

    Olanusi challenged the governor to dispute the claim of forgery and falsification of the State Oil-producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC) Appropriation Law 2014, which he said, led to the alleged squandering of N18 billion meant for frontline services and the implementation of people-oriented programmes in riverine communities.

    He said the governor should clear the air on the alleged forgery and falsification of 2014 Re-Ordered Budget to cover N6.7 billion, which, he alleged, was channeled into specialised conduit-pipes.

    Other allegations made by Olanusi included the alleged falsification of the House of Assembly resolution authorising the borrowing of N2.4 billion for the Wealth Creation Agency (WECA), the diversion of money meant for the Residency Card Project by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the manipulation of the N27 billion bond and diversion of its proceeds without the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) approval and falsification of records of the House of Assembly on his impeachment.

    Olanusi added: “The more you look, the more you see tactical incursion, divorced from the machinery of an elected government that seeks to undo checks and balances created to protect the supremacy of parliament and the independence of the judiciary.”

  • Mimiko sacks aides

    Mimiko sacks aides

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko yesterday announced the sack of his Special Assistants (SAs) and Senior Special Assistants (SSAs).

    Mimiko, at a meeting with the former aides at the Babafunke Ajasin Auditorium, Alagbaka, Akure, thanked them for their “selfless service” to his government and the state.

    He solicited their continued support for his administration.

    The governor said the disengagement had become necessary following the restructuring and repositioning efforts of his government for better service delivery.

    Mimiko said: “I can only thank you for your services to the government and people of this state, who elected us for the delivery of democratic dividends.

    “I appreciate your selflessness and dedication and wish you well in your future endeavours”.

    The governor prayed that God should reward the outgoing aides as they have contributed to his government and the state during their period in office.

    On Monday, local government caretaker committee chairmen were relieved of their posts and replaced with new ones.

    He retained two chairmen out of the 18 councils because of their short service.