Ondo PDP, APC struggle for control after Mimiko’s tenure

THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State are involved in leadership tussle over who controls the state after the expiration of Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s second term tenure on February 23, 2017.

A statement issued to The Guardian by the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Banji Okunomo, stated that: “The attention of the Peoples Democratic Party Ondo State chapter has been drawn to another series of vilifying publication in today’s newspapers titled: “Vote out PDP” and credited to the Publicity Secretary of the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, Omo’ba Abayomi Adesanya.

We have read several publications of the publicity secretary of the APC and found that there are hardly any meaningful content, ideas and substance in what he intends to achieve with his publications.

Due to the nature of the unsuspecting public, Adesanya’s misguided statements cannot be ignored totally, hence this reaction.” According to him: “The desperation with which the APC is calling on the electorate to vote out the PDP government in Ondo State in the 2016 gubernatorial election is predicated on the likely residual effects of bad governance, which the APC government offers at the national level.”

The party chieftain flayed President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC for the lopsided appointment, accusing them of giving sensitive positions to northerners, at the expense of the south geo-political zone of the nation.

Okunomo remarked that, “the APC in Ondo State knowing that the party has lost the popularity which heralded it into power on May 29, 2015, is now jittery and desperately going back to the old strategy of false propaganda to cover up.

This definitely would not work again as many electorate are wiser to understand that the whole noise of APC-change is about Buhari and his northern folks whereas the southern Nigeria has been technically dislodged from relevance in the scheme of affairs in this country.

He accused the party of circumventing the Federal Character Act, which underlines that all geo-political zones of the country must be given equal representation.

The state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Abayomi Adesanya, however, in his reaction, dismissed the allegation of lopsided appointments by the President. He stated that the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas, the Chief of Defence Staff, Maj. Gen Abayomi Olonishakin, the GMD of NNPC, Emmanuel Kachikwu are not from the north.

Adesanya informed that President Buhari has not rounded off his appointments and there are still many positions, which will be shared among all zones of the country.