Ondo 2024: Disquiet in APC as Mimiko, Oke loyalists take over campaign council
There is disquiet in the Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress(APC) over the composition of the campaign council for the November 16 governorship election, reports Thefrontrank.
Thefrontrank findings revealed that the founding members of the party known as “aborigines” and other chieftains are complaining that loyalists of former governor Segun Mimiko and Chief Olusola Oke have taken the campaign council and heading strategic positions.
Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who is the candidate of the party, had on Friday announced the member representing Ondo West/Ondo East federal constituency, Mr Abiola Makinde, as the Director General of the campaign council.
Makinde, a former Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Publicity Secretary in South West, was appointed Caretaker Chairman of Ondo West Local Government by Mimiko in 2013, while in the build up to 2019 elections, he defected to the African Democratic Congress(ADC) and in 2022 decamped to APC.
Party sources lamented that apart from the Director-General of the campaign council, Makinde, who is Mimiko’s mentee, most of the committees’ chairmen, Local Governments and Wards coordinators were members of Mimiko and Oke groups.
It was learnt that the composition of the campaign council was without the knowledge and input of the majority of party leaders and the State Working Committee.
According to a party leader, “most leaders of the party, especially the aborigines, are having their placards in their hearts as they claimed they were not consulted in the composition of the campaign council.
“This shows how Aiyedatiwa will run his government if he wins the November election; we are waiting.
“It is unfortunate that the composition of council was mainly between Mimiko group and Oke group, while Aiyedatiwa included few of his loyalists to make it up.
“That was why the 29 loyalists of former governor Mimiko were directed to join the party early enough for them to be in-charge of the campaign council and dictate the direction of the party.”
Also lamenting, a member of the state working committee said “can you imagine a man who was a founding member of PDP in 1999 before defecting to APC in 2015 and decamped to the Alliance for Democracy(AD) in 2016 to contest governorship election and later returned to APC, is the one fixing his loyalists in the campaign council.
“Unknown to the people of Akure, they will be the biggest loser in this game having this trio as the pilots.”
“Unfortunately, the Party chairman has no choice than to play along, his days are numbered. He will be removed after the November election as one of the Mimiko’s loyalists has been pencilled down for the position.”
Thefrontrank reports that Mimiko and his loyalists decamped from AD to PDP in 2003, while in 2007, the “Iroko; Gbasibe” leader defected to the Labour Party(LP) to contest the governorship election.
On his political nomadism, Mimiko in 2014, returned to PDP, and in 2018 defected to Zenith Labour Party(ZLP), while in October 2021, the former governor and his loyalists returned to PDP for the third time.