The Ondo State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade, has refuted media reports that the state governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko has concluded plans to dump the Labour Party (LP) for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, stressing that the governor is still in the LP.
Akinmade, who confirmed that Mimiko was under pressure from the national leadership of PDP to join the ruling party, said the governor has not decided on whether to defect from the LP, on whose platform he was elected.
“We cannot deny the fact that there were pressures from various political parties that Governor Mimiko should join them. But the fact remains that the governor is still in the LP, and he remains the Leader of the party both at the state and national levels”, he said.
Akinmade noted that the report of the planned defection was “a mere figment of imaginations of the writers of the story”.
According to him, Governor Mimiko was still holding consultations with relevant stakeholders in the state on whether to join another political party or keep faith with the LP.
The commissioner lamented that the report was based on rumour being peddled by some individuals in the state.
He added that both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the PDP were making overtures to the governor, acknowledging that Mimiko had also consulted various political leaders.
The governor’s rumored intention to defect to the PDP had already created an uneasy calm in Ondo State, just as the social media was agog with the news.
