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Tag: Olusegun Mimiko

  • Ondo PDP leaders protest power sharing

    Ondo PDP leaders protest power sharing

    •More lawmakers to join APC

    Some aggrieved leaders of the Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stormed Abuja yesterday, following a disagreement with Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

    The chapter was thrown into crisis after Mimiko’s defection from the Labour Party to the PDP and the subsequent dissolution of the Ebenezer Alabi-led state executive by the party’s national leadership.

    It was gathered that the aggrieved members, comprising leaders of the Alabi group, arrived in Abuja on Monday to meet with the party’s leadership.

    A meeting was held with the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, Kingsley Kuku, who was said to have brokered peace between the two groups.

    Kuku is from Arogbo-Ijaw in Ondo State and is one of the key financiers of the party in the state.

    A source said the aggrieved party leaders complained about the lopsided sharing of elective offices, with the Alabi group given nine House of Assembly slots, and Mimiko 17.

    The Alabi group insisted on 10 and 16 for Mimiko.

    The group also faulted the formula allocating six House of Representatives slots to Mimiko, against its three. They are insisting on a five-four ratio.

    “If this anomaly is addressed among others, the dissolution of the state PDP exco and the handing over of the party structure to Mimiko won’t be an issue anymore,” an aggrieved party leader said.

    Chairman of the Ondo All Progressives Congress (APC) Isaac Kekemeke has said three PDP House of Representatives lawmakers would join the APC.

    In a statement yesterday in Abuja, Kekemeke said the APC was ready to do everything morally right to accommodate them.

    “Yes, it is true that some lawmakers and the party (APC) are discussing the possibility of their defection to our party. As a party, we will ensure that all new comers and old members are fairly and equally treated.

    “This is the only way we can unite the party and build it in readiness for the task ahead.

    “I can assure you that these lawmakers who have approached us will openly declare for the APC next week,” Kekemeke stated.

    One of them, Akintoye Albert, who represents Okitipupa/ Irele Constituency, at a briefing with reporters in Akure, attributed his planned defection to the unresolved crisis that trailed the governor’s defection to the PDP.

    The lawmaker said the PDP had witnessed “political decadence” since Mimiko joined the party a month ago.

    He said the governor had not carried members along but he rather adopted a divide-and-rule tactic for his selfish interest.

    Akintoye said: “How can you just come into the party and say you want to take over the party at the detriment of the old members and destroy the existing structure?

    “Everyone in Ondo State knows that Mimiko left LP because the party had lost credibility and relevance in the state.

    “We expected the PDP leadership to address and handle the issue appropriately but instead, it did otherwise.

    The lawmaker, who was a former chairman of Irele Local Government, accused Mimiko of causing disaffection during the party ward congress.

    With the party crisis in the state, Akintoye said President Goodluck Jonathan would lose the state in  2015, if the crisis is not resolved.

    He said: “How can a governor pick two sisters for House of Assembly and House of Representatives?

    “The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Jumoke Akindele and Princess Oladunni Odu are sisters.

    “The governor has endorsed Odu for the House of Representatives and her younger sister for the House of Assembly.

    “It is against the PDP tradition. PDP is not a father, mother and child party as they did during their days in the Labour Party. I will not tolerate that,” he said.

  • Scores set to dump PDP for APC in Ondo

    Scores set to dump PDP for APC in Ondo

    Massive defection is looming in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State as some aggrieved members of the party are making underground moves to pitch their tents with the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Hinging their proposed action on the alleged dictatorial attitude of the state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko in choosing the party’s candidates for the 2015 general elections, many members of the party including old and new members, sources said, are set to dump the PDP for the major opposition party.

    Mimiko had defected to the PDP some weeks ago and his return to the party he left eight years ago had polarised the  party in the sunshine state.

    The party is now divided into two factions, with some members loyal to the chairman of the old PDP, Ebenezer Alabi, while the other faction holds allegiance to the governor.

    Specifically, some members of the party in Akure South and North are not happy about the choice of a politician, Dare Aliu, as the party’s candidate for Akure North and South federal constituency.

    Many members of the party are also not pleased with the governor for backing the Senator representing Ondo Central Senatorial District, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, to run for another term.

    It was gathered that aggrieved members of the PDP have been holding series of meetings with the leadership of the APC in the state to fine tune their plan to join the party.

     

  • Mimiko: no one can force me out

    Mimiko: no one can force me out

    Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has said no individual can force him out of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The governor said his defection was not to create crisis or divide the party.

    Mimiko said: “I have not come to the PDP to cause or create any crisis, but I have come to the party to add value to it.”

    The governor spoke when he addressed youth leaders led by the PDP national youth leader, Abdulahi Maibasira.

    He said his membership would assist the party in future elections.

    The governor said discipline must be maintained for the PDP to be able to win in 2015.

    “No party will survive without discipline. A party that takes decision and cannot enforce it is not a party.  A situation where decisions are taken at the highest level chaired by the Senate President and some party members went to court to challenge it is unacceptable.

    He said: “I have not come to PDP to be part of crisis, I have come to add value, I am not coming into PDP on the eve of a second term election and that is part of what we should consider, as a person I have no ambition, there is no senate seat available for me, I have only come to add value.

    “I am back in this party, I have made the move and nobody is going to force me out of PDP again, if anybody thinks he will create crisis and I will get angry and leave they are just wasting time, let us come together and build this party, discipline must be maintained.

    I said I don’t need all the structure just to give comfort to the people I am bringing on board.

    “Out of 27 seats at the state level I said let me take 14 and they take 13, anybody that say that is not fair enough for a governor that is coming with 25 members out of 26 in the House of Assembly let him or her come out.”

  • Fake PDP cards flood Ondo

    Fake PDP cards flood Ondo

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has raised the alarm over “illegal” membership registration being carried out by some people parading themselves as chairmen and secretaries across the 203 wards.

    A statement by its Chairman, Ebenezer Alabi, said: “We are aware that these elements with the support of Governor Olusegun Mimiko, who joined the party lately, are bent on obstructing the wheel of progress of the PDP in Ondo State.

    “The cards and registers distributed to all the wards did not come from the national or the state secretariat. The items are fake.

    “The ruling of an Abuja Federal Capital Territory High Court that the status quo should be maintained refrains anyone from taking any step that could lead to a breach of peace.

    “But Mimiko and his supporters have chosen to dare the law by illegally setting up a parallel secretariat at Bishop Fagun Road, Alagbaka, Akure.”

    The statement urged party members to distance themselves from the illegal registration.

     

     

     

  • Obi, Mimiko in PDP

    Obi, Mimiko in PDP

    A LITTLE over one week after Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State rejoined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Labour Party, former Anambra State governor, Peter Obi, has unceremoniously left the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for the same PDP. Both predicated their decisions on the imperative of ensuring that President Goodluck Jonathan is re-elected next year. There were doubtless some disagreements in APGA, but they were not enough to prompt any defection on the substantial scale enacted by Mr Obi, at least not enough to fulfil the requirements of the Electoral Act and the constitution. Dr Mimiko, on the other hand, had no patience with what the law says on defection, laws the PDP had months earlier sought to brutally apply to blunt the mass defections the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) furnished us last year.

    While Mr Obi craves some national relevance after his two terms in office as governor, and was at a point even speculated to be interested in the position of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a position occupied by his compatriot, Anyim Pius Anyim, Dr Mimiko’s motivation is more nuanced, more subtle, but no less unprincipled. Mr Anyim has fought back valiantly to retain his position in the face of a highly flirtatious presidency that embraces, and is eager to jump into the bed of, the newest suitor. The SGF’s success will depend on how politically lecherous the Jonathan presidency becomes. A bit of chastity on the part of President Jonathan will help Mr Anyim retain his position, but the presidency is quite unpredictable because it is often driven by constantly morphing, if not altogether base, notions of morality.

    Dr Mimiko on the other hand is a handful both to his friends and his enemies. His visage is that of an honest and principled politician, a dogged fighter of the oppressed and dispossessed. But at bottom he fights dirty, bites in the clinches, is not averse to selling virtue and buying vice when the occasion suits him, and will as soon negotiate joyously for war as compromise morosely against peace. He didn’t need a disagreement in his former party to jump ship. All he needed was the single-minded pursuit of his own happiness. He told a sceptical public on the day he defected that as a governor who had more than two years to go, he was not defecting to secure one political privilege or the other, or to secure one appointment or another. He rejoined the party he had always loved, he said, because of his infatuation with President Jonathan, particularly the president’s re-election bid. It is hard to say whether he believed himself.

    Both Mr Obi and Dr Mimiko have managed by their inconsistencies to damage their former parties, perhaps irretrievably. To be sure they had the right to defect anywhere, notwithstanding the provisions of the law. But there can be no question what the consequences of their defections will be. Labour Party is now riven with dissension and discontent. Party and non-party commentators have brutally skewered Dr Mimiko for his perfidy, blaming him, and to some extent the party chairman, Dan Nwanyanwu, for their betrayal. But it is no use crying over spilt milk. If the party, which will now be starved of funds, must survive, it will do so on starvation ration, practicing politics as niggardly as any mendicant would. Where LP members will find the fortitude to keep their party going is difficult to imagine, let alone see.

    Just like LP legislators in Ondo have defected en masse, APGA lawmakers may also find themselves playing political gymnastics soon. With or without Mr Obi, the party has endorsed President Jonathan’s re-election. Mr Obi could find no reason not to go the whole hog to join the PDP; members of APGA, most of them existing nondescriptly on hospital oxygen, may goosestep after Mr Obi into the national ruling party. There will be hue and cry, and much din will be raised. But in the end they will grimly swallow their pride and drink hemlock, persuaded erroneously that mass suicide, such as they casually and remorselessly contrive, is a historical necessity for which posterity will absolve them.

  • Shun national convention, LP tells members

    Shun national convention, LP tells members

    The national leadership of the Labour Party (LP) yesterday warned members, particularly those seeking elective offices, to be wary of the planned national convention of the LP slated for this Friday in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

    The party alleged that the convention is being sponsored by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to collapse LP nationwide and railroad members into its (PDP’s) fold with the connivance of Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

     

  • Mimiko calls for tolerance

    Mimiko calls for tolerance

    Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has charged Muslims to imbibe the spirit of sacrifice in the interest of the nation.

    Mimiko, in an Eid-el-Kabir message by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Eni Akinsola, urged Muslim to use the Sallah season to reflect on the importance of sacrifice for the interest of the nation as exemplified by Prophet Ibrahim in the Holy Books.

    “At this critical time in the history of our nation and as we approach another general election, I urge all Muslim faithful to rekindle the spirit of sacrifice, demonstrate love and tolerance towards our nation and one another,” the governor said.

    While urging them not to relent in their prayers for Nigeria, Mimiko said: “Despite the insecurity challenges confronting our nation, we must look inward and reflect on our prospects and continue to pray for peace in our country.

    “For us to overcome our various challenges as a nation, we must be ready to make sacrifice, come together in one accord and tolerate ourselves, regardless of the religious, ethinc or political group we belong to.”

  • LP to meet on Mimiko’s defection tomorrow

    LP to meet on Mimiko’s defection tomorrow

    The Labour Party (LP) has said Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko is still a member of the party, despite his purported planned defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The party’s governorship candidate in the June 21 governorship election, Opeyemi Bamidele, said: Mimiko would address the nation on his plans but today he remains the leader and member of LP.

    “The National Executive Committee (NEC) will meet in Abuja tomorrow to discuss the issues.

    “After the meeting, we will be able to confirm or refute  the rumours and how the party stands.”

    The Ekiti State chapter announced the constitution of an 11-member body to consider proposals of possible cooperation between LP and other parties in the state.

    Bamidele said: “Any move our party makes will be in the best interest of the people “.

    The lawmaker said the party has been receiving overtures from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP.

    He said: “As a patriot and statesman, I am ready to work with anyone who is interested in working with me or any member of our party.

    “The governor-elect, Ayo Fayose, is interested in working with me. He (Fayose) has never hidden that fact. He has visited me and was at the LP secretariat. He has been talking to us.

    “Even the APC has been reaching out seeking genuine reconciliation for us to rebuild the party.

    “APC is not only making rapprochement to me alone, but to every member of the party, even at the local level. So, this goes beyond my own personal opinion. It is a collective thing.

    “But I want to state here that we will not compromise because the LP leaders have not come to any conclusion to merge with any party in Ekiti. Whatever step we are going to take will be in the overall interest of the populace.”

  • Decoding Mimiko’s Defection

    Decoding Mimiko’s Defection

    Newspapers feasted on the news that emerged early in the week of August of the impending defection of Governor Olusegun Mimiko to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). To those familiar with his ‘maradonic’ political antecedents and his seemingly uncontrollable appetite for betraying the cause(s) and objective(s) of any political camps in which he pitches his tent, the news that Mimiko – the only Labour Party (LP) governor of the hapless Ondo State – had concluded plans to dump his party for the PDP should not have been anything worthy of attention. But as the week progressed, the Nigerian reading public got to know that Governor Mimiko’s defection was the result of an “unforced error” on his path that necessitated an impromptu defection that he could ignore only at his own political peril.

    With a healthy dose of fresh facts from some dailies that “the Presidency allegedly compelled Mimiko” to defect to the ruling party or else, you knew instinctively that this ‘political maradona’ had probably attempted another dribbling that proved too costly for him this time around. The Nation reported that the chain of events that led to Mimiko’s decision was triggered by the alleged secret defection of his deputy, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, and the Senator representing Ondo South, Boluwaji Kunlere from the LP to the PDP without the governor’s knowledge. The paper further reported that Governor Mimiko issued his deputy a query “with a concealed threat of impeachment.” Rattled by the query and having watched his boss’ raw and undiluted Machiavellian political disposition from close proximity, Olanusi instinctively sensed the fate that awaited him if he did not act fast as Iroko does not take prisoners. So, he ran to his kinsman from Akoko in Abuja who is the Chief of Staff to the President, retired Brig. General James Arogbofa.  Arogbofa, probably due to his military training was able to smell blood from afar, in turn alerted his principal, President Jonathan that   Olanusi was being prepared for the slaughter to the gods that has always given Iroko that uncanny ability that the very same people he dribbles are the ones that always claps for him until after he had long walked away with the trophy.

    Arogbofa must have helped in removing the scales from the eyes of his principal, Jonathan. With the scales gone, the president flew off the handle and vowed to cut and make firewood out of Iroko this time. Also because of his own snaky nature, the president can recognize another snake in human clothing when he sees one. So, he “gave Mimiko an ultimatum to defect to PDP or he would make life unbearable for him.” It doesn’t get nastier than that.

    With this revelation, you knew that the fox have finally outfoxed himself this time. The Maradona has ultimately dribbled himself into a tight corner with no choice than to score his own goal for a defeat. After all, you cannot sell your franchise and still insist on calling the shots for the buyer and the remaining employees. In order not to lose face in the eyes of those still foolish enough to continue to carry his cans, Governor Mimiko was reported to have said that his decision to defect to the ruling PDP was informed by his desire to bring federal presence to Ondo State. I beg your pardon?

    I wager that Mimiko would rue the day his deputy was given that query because he probably least expected that the septuagenarian would be smart enough to scurry to the governor’s superiors in Abuja for his political salvation. More importantly, the governor probably could not have imagined Jonathan brandishing a big stick against him – his loyal poodle. I can take even a bigger bet that Mimiko’s intention was to continue to string along Jonathan until after the 2015 presidential election to see if the president would still retain his seat, and if he fails, would look for a soft point of entry from which to sneak quietly into the APC camp. This is a snaky attribute.

    I have argued before that Mimiko’s fraternization with any political party he finds himself may not necessarily be because of any deep-seated political conviction but his own political aggrandizement as exemplified by the amount of benefits he had extracted from Jonathan and his administration, even if he had to exhibit a despicable behavior that a sane, rational and averagely intelligent teenager would find nauseating, such as proclaiming that 16 was greater than 19. Governor Mimiko’s concern is not whether anyone or the political entity that assisted him to achieve his end-goal will survive. He probably harbours the opposite. His sole concern is a power-base of his own where he is the Lord of the Manor. It therefore should be noted that he cares very little – if any – for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) but will continue to identify with it as long as it is the party at the centre. He would have loved to grow and nurture his Labour Party at least in the South-west, just as Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu had nurtured a party that eventually formed a major plank of the country’s first formidable opposition party. Aside from being compelled, it is a smart political move for him to collapse the remnants of his party as it has failed in its mission to act as a bulwark against the progressive political class in the South-west.

    Governor Mimiko’s defection is good for the politics of the South-west. For a governor that depleted the huge political capital that he was freely given by the good people of Ondo State less than two years into his first term, but buoyed by the federal might and his vast experience in the art of rigging to have secured a second term, the defection is significant in completing the gathering of birds of the same feathers in their readiness to flock together. The heads of these flocks are already situated in most of the South-west states. However, one must also warn that these very strange birds carry a particular strain of the Ebola virus that can seriously affect the political health of their hosts and co-travellers alike. The choice is now crystal clear for the people of the South-west as to which group of birds their present as well as their future should be entrusted.

     

    • Odere is a media practitioner. He can be reached at femiodere@gmail.com.
  • Provide level playing field for aspirants, APC chieftain urges leaders

    Provide level playing field for aspirants, APC chieftain urges leaders

    A former Special Assistant on Due Process to Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, Mr. Afe Olowookere, has urged the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to remain resolute and allow a level-playing ground for all the contestants seeking for elective positions in the party.

    Speaking with reporters after declaring his intention to represent Akure North/South Federal Constituency in the National Assembly in 2015, the aspirant also called on party supporters to remain focused and disciplined in order to ensure that APC forms the next government in the State.

    The former Deputy Majority Leader in the State House of Assembly said: “We must be focused and determined more than ever, because the expectations of the masses are very high on the APC. LP has failed, people have tested PDP before and they have realised that the hope of this state is with the APC.

    “Mimiko is moving to another party, but his character will not change. Their so-called merger will be an added advantage for our party to come out stronger and win all elections come 2015.”

    The APC chieftain also expressed displeasure on how his constituency had been represented in the present dispensation, while calling for immediate action to address the problem.