Mimiko dares Agagu, SSS over alleged fake security report: Challenged them to come out clean

Olusegun Mimiko
Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko yesterday broke his silence and came out smoking on the controversy surrounding the alleged fake security reports tendered at the Justice Garba Nabaruma-led Election Petition Tribunal as he challenged both former Governor Olusegun Agagu and the State Security Service (SSS) to stop the what he termed “unnecessary noise” over the matter and produce their own 'authentic' reports forthwith.

 
Mimiko, who threw this challenge while speaking on an Ondo State Radiovision Ciorporation (OSRC) Television live programme, "Mr. Governor Speaks," Mimiko on Monday likened the whole scenario to an act of desperation by a drowning man who wants to cling to a straw for survival.

He posited that the security yarn was an antic employed by Agagu to distract him from delivering the dividends of democracy for the people of Ondo State having viewed the spate of developmental projects currently going on in the State within the 18 months of his administration as against the lack of any meaningful projects in Agagu's controversial six years rule in the State.

 
His words: "let me tell the people of Ondo State that there is nothing to all these noise over security report; for me, it is an act of desperation to distract us. We went to the tribunal to challenge Agagu and the PDP that we won the election; that his purported and was a sham after all contrary to their assertion. They responded and pleaded unequivocally and clearly that in trying to prove that what we said in our petition was false, that they will produce security reports that they won the election. His petition to this effect was signed by one of lawyers, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). We got to the tribunal but they could not produce the security report.

 
“You see, the logic is this: They got the report and they found out that it was not in their interest then, they kept it under the drawer. But somehow, this security report materialized at the tribunal and the judges, using their own judicial discretion, after cross-examination and a subpoena to the Director of State Security Services (SSS) to produce this report, which they didn't produce.

 
"Will it not be abnormal for SSS to say they had no security report about the election when they were present in every polling booth and every local government of the State? If they denied the existence of the report, then something must be wrong, but I think Nigerians should ask Agagu where are those security reports that they pleaded so copiously in their petition that they would produce? I think that is where to start, I understand they petitioned the Presidency, but they should give us in black and white their own reports so that we can know who is saying the truth.

Mimiko therefore challenged Agagu and the PDP in Ondo State to produce the report that they promised rather than resorting to all these fly in the ointment and underhand tactics.

His words: “Isn't it laughable that three years down the line, after twenty two months of judicial process and with the service of about ten (10) Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs), they just woke up suddenly to say some reports are fake, but I think that is meant to be a distraction.

“But we remain focused in our resolve to offer the best for our people for which we have been irrevocably committed to since February 24, 2009 when we were sworn-in. But the truth is that everybody in Ondo State knew what happened in the Southern Senatorial District in the re-run Election into the Ilaje II in the State House of Assembly on July 31, this year. Do you need security report for that?

“During that by-election, the civil society organizations that were accredited by the Presidency to monitor the election came out with the report that the level of brigandage by the PDP, they mentioned the PDP, was unprecedented. They went further to mention Senator Gbenga Ogunniya, Olusola Oke, and Senator Hosea Ehinlanwo as people who came to terrorize the people with policemen, it is in the report, the report is in the Presidency.

“So when you even talk about 2007, it was a bit far but we are talking about one that happened two months ago, so what are we talking about? These people are just looking for a straw to hang on to, but we are on course. Enough is enough," Mimiko concluded.