BY TAIWO FAROTIMI
After weeks of speculations, Olusegun Mimiko, former governor of Ondo State has resigned from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. In a letter to the leadership of the party in the state, Mimiko, fondly called “Iroko’ by his admirers, cited ‘well thought-out personal reasons’ for leaving.
Mimiko, a former secretary to the government of Ondo State, and later minister, defeated Olusegun Agagu under who he served as secretary. But the defeat had to be confirmed in a court of law after a long legal duel. As soon as the results were announced proclaiming Agagu for second term, there was a massive protest in the state. In fact, women staged a nude-protest at the state headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
It is being speculated that the Labour Party, LP under which he contested then may be his choice again. He had had a face off with some leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC who expected him to join their party, because of the support they reportedly gave him while prosecuting the case against Agagu. But he defected to PDP, where he was a major player in the campaign for the second term ambition of former President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election. Shortly after that election he was elected chairman of the PDP governors’ forum. He had been deputy chairman under Godswill Akpabio, former governor of Akwa Ibom State.
Even in the PDP, at the beginning the reception at the state level was not a very pleasant one. Some of the leaders, perhaps afraid of his political stature, resisted his movement into the party. They later reconciled.