INEC-recognised PDP governorship candidate in Ondo state, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim said the burning of tyres allegedly orchestrated by Governor Mimiko was to give a false impression of security challenges in the state but that the trick would not work.
In a statement he issued yesterday, he said, “yesterday, Mimiko called on the drivers’ union in the state, whose chairman is his relative, to gather disused tyres across the state and burn them so as to show that there are security challenges in Akure town.”
“While the tyres were burning, school children were attending their classes, banks were opened, market women and traders were carrying on their economic activities, and courts were sitting.”
According to him, “regrettably, Mimiko’s orthodoxy has played out to be fake, empty and unbecoming of a person that occupies the position of the governor of a state. I am happy to note that Mimiko eventually met with President Muhammadu Buhari, a president that Governor Mimiko had described, in a meeting with the former President Goodluck Jonathan, as unfit to govern Nigeria and according to Governor Mimiko, the president does not have a school certificate. Regrettably, this tyre burning for sympathy will not work as Ondo State remains peaceful.”
Meantime, the Peoples Democratic Party has said that the confirmation of Jimoh Ibrahim as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party was shocking and surprising.
In a statement yesterday, the spokesman of the party, Dayo Adeyeye said the commission monitored the Primary Election conducted in Akure, Ondo state by the Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi-led PDP which produced Hon. Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) and did not monitor the purported primary election that produced Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim which was said to have held in Ibadan, the Oyo State Capital.
“INEC cited the Order from Justice Okon Abang of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court as the reason for publishing Barr. Ibrahim’s name as PDP Candidate but ignored another order from the Ondo State High Court, which is a Court of Coordinate jurisdiction that compelled INEC to maintain Hon. Eyitayo Jegede’s name as the candidate of the PDP. ”
“The least INEC could have done in the circumstance was to maintain status quo and stick to its own earlier decision pending a superior order or judgment from a superior court. But that did not happen in this case.”
“This singular decision of INEC has generated sporadic reactions from the electorates in Ondo state leading to violent protest and damages. This could have been avoided if INEC had adhered strictly to the letters and characters of the Electoral Laws and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“We therefore warn that external forces should not sit in Abuja and set Ondo state ablaze. Whatever authority in Abuja, whether it’s the executive that is using the judiciary or vice versa, must realize that they cannot for selfish political reasons toy with the fate of millions of people in Ondo state. Who emerges governor of the state should be the decision of the electorates themselves through the ballot and not from any organ of the Federal Government in Abuja.”
“It is a known fact that Ondo people are politically sophisticated and any attempt to truncate the will of the people will be resisted vehemently. References should be made to the 1965/66 and 1983 political violence in the west that brought about the collapse of the 1st and the 2nd Republic. We should therefore be careful not to repeat history.”
“Finally, we call on the people of Ondo State to eschew violence and remain calm. We believe in the rule of law and the matter is already in the Appeal Court, and we are certain that the PDP shall get justice on this issue and Hon. Eyitayo Jegede will be returned to contest under the platform of our great party,” he said.