MIMIKO, FAYOSE RECEIVE 5,000 DEFECTORS TO LP

Dr. Olusegun Mimiko
Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko and a former governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, on Monday formally welcomed over 5,000 defectors from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Labour Party.

The defectors attributed their action to the alleged lack of internal cohesion and the leadership qualities of Mimiko as the reasons for their action.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, in Akure on Monday, explained that the leader of the group, who was a former member of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Olukanye Eleko, described the PDP as a one-legged party, bereft of internal democracy.

Eleko was said to have complained that the PDP leadership was no longer listening to other people's views.

He described Mimiko as a pragmatic leader, who listens to shades of opinion; a quality he noted had endeared him to all and sundry all over the nation.

He disclosed that he was excited by the spate of developmental projects currently going on all over the state within the last 14 months of the Mimiko administration.

He pledged that he and his colleagues would work to make the LP a great party.

In his address, Fayose congratulated the erstwhile members of the PDP for jumping out of what he termed a sinking ship while there was still chance.

He stated that Mimiko's track records in his one year in office had made mockery of all that the former administrations in the state could ever lay claim to.

According to him, the era of phantom road map to progress is gone.

He said the era of road map to action was now in vogue in Ondo State.

He predicted that the LP was the party of the future, one that would ensure that the real dividends of democracy were brought to the people.

The state LP Chairman, Dr. Olaiya Oni, had welcomed the people to the party with an assurance that there would be a level playing field for all. He assured that by the time the party left office, Ondo State would become a reference point in Nigeria and worldwide.

In his address, Mimiko disclosed that those who were just joining the LP would have cause to thank God for their decision, adding that in the next few weeks, more developmental projects would be cited in Akure, the state capital, to make it look like a true state capital.

He stated that already four neighbourhood markets had been completed by his government to take traders off the streets, adding that the dualisation of the Arakale Road would soon commence to add to the beautification of Akure currently going on.

The governor equally assured all the people of the state of even and rapid development in the months to come.