Jegede, Mimiko’s stooge — Akeredolu

LEKE BAIYEWU and PETER DADA

The candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), has called the Peoples Democratic Party opponent, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN), a stooge of Governor Olusegun Mimiko.

Akeredolu said Mimiko chose Jegede as the candidate of the PDP to enable him (Mimiko) realise his “third term agenda,” in a statement issued by his media aide, Kunle Adebayo, in Akure.

But in a swift reaction, the state’s Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Banji Okunomo, said Jegede was not a stooge to anybody.

The APC candidate alleged that Jegede was incompetent and inexperienced.

The statement said, “It is unthinkable that an unprepared, untrained, inexperienced and untested Jegede can dream of being the governor of a highly sensitive state with wounded, cheated and angry electorate. What has remained a wonder to every right thinking citizen of Ondo State are the values and ideals Jegede wishes to parade as campaign issues when the Mimiko’s government academy where he (Jegede) was purportedly trained and graduated from has been adjudged as corrupt, ineffectual and a monumental failure. It is shameful and unthinkable that a man of Eyitayo Jegede’s standing can allow himself to be used as a stooge for Mimiko’s third term agenda.”

Okunomo, however, urged Akeredolu to focus on the crisis within the APC.

He said, “Somebody whose emergence as a candidate of a party is controversial should focus on resolving his problem first. He should address the issue of integrity. His party members said he manipulated the political structure to win the primary. That is what he should address because somebody who wants to rule a state should have integrity. The PDP has picked a person of impeccable character, integrity and competence. He is better than the person who manipulated a primary to his advantage. How would a person that manipulated a primary manage the economy of a state?”

Meanwhile, a member of the Senate representing Ondo-North Senatorial District, Senator Ajayi Boroffice, has said he will not dump the APC for any other political party despite losing the state’s governorship primary in a controversial circumstance.

Boroffice, in an interview with SUNDAY PUNCH on Friday, said unlike Oke who defected from the APC to the Alliance for Democracy in protest against alleged rigging of the primary, he would remain in the party.

Boroffice said, “I have not defected (to another party). I am in the APC and I will continue to remain in the party. I have expressed my grievances with the outcome of the primary within the guidelines of the party. We have accepted the decision of the leadership in the interest of the party. I know that I am on the same page with my followers on the decision and actions we will take. We are going to be guided by the overall interest of the party and its guidelines.”