After months of horse-trading between him and President Goodluck Jonathan, Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has finally dumped the Labour Party (LP) to rejoin the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which he dumped in 2006.
NEWSLEAK has been reliably informed that Governor Mimiko will declare publicly for the PDP next week, if arrangements concluded so far remain intact.
Similarly, the immediate past governor Anambra State, Peter Obi, who recently backed out of the Board of Trusteeship (BOT) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has also joined the PDP.
This development has re-drawn the political architectures of the South-West and the South-East in favour of Jonathan’s re-election in 2015.
NEWSLEAK was informed by a Presidency source that Mimiko, apart from his undisguised support for the re-election of Jonathan next year, did not Mr Ayo Fayose, the governor-elect of Ekiti State, to clinch the unofficial position of the Governor-General of the PDP ahead of him.
Fayose, who is already being addressed the Governor-General of PDp in the Region, will wield so much power as the only PDP governor in the South-West should he be sworn in before Mimiko moves to the PDP.
Another reason, it was gathered was that, given the PDP’s victory in Ekiti and its good showing at the Osun election, the president has said it will stop its funding of Mimiko to mobilise support for him (the president) in the South-West and rather deploy such resource for use in the PDP with Fayose in charge.
The president, it will be recalled, was accused in a letter written by Olusegun Obasanjo last December of funding the opposition even against candidates of the PDP as experienced during the Anambra and Ondo governorship elections.
To ensure such legitimate accusation does not recur, Jonathan had to persuade Mimiko and Obi to join the PDP so that his traducers can be silenced.
For Anambra, not only has Obi joined the PDP, Willie Obiano, his godson whom he has succeeded in installing in the state, will also declare for the PDP any moment from now.
A source told NEWSLEAK that Jonathan needs more state for his to get the report of the National Conference ratified through a constitutional amendment procedure that will begin soon.
He needs 24 states and PDP currently has 20 (18+Ekiti and the recaptured Adamawa) and with Ondo and Anambra now joining to make it 22 PDP controlled-states, the president needs two more states in the South-West, with Oyo and Ogun being the next target.
Mimiko joined the PDP in 2002 after resigning from Adefarati’s government as health commissioner.
He was appointed the Secretary to the State Government in 2003 in the Olusegun Agagu’s government where he was till 2005 when he was appointed Minister by the Obasanjo administration.
In 2006, his resigned from that office to contest against Agagu for the governorship ticket but under the Labour Party platform.
He won the election but was not declared by INEC. It took the courts to reinstate his mandate.
Should Jonathan return in 2015, Mimiko, whose tenure expires in 2016, will be made the Chief of Staff to President Jonathan.
Obi is rehearsing to take over from Pius Anyim as the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation because Anyim is going to run as Ebonyi State governor in 2015.
NEWSLEAK has been reliably informed that Governor Mimiko will declare publicly for the PDP next week, if arrangements concluded so far remain intact.
Similarly, the immediate past governor Anambra State, Peter Obi, who recently backed out of the Board of Trusteeship (BOT) of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has also joined the PDP.
This development has re-drawn the political architectures of the South-West and the South-East in favour of Jonathan’s re-election in 2015.
NEWSLEAK was informed by a Presidency source that Mimiko, apart from his undisguised support for the re-election of Jonathan next year, did not Mr Ayo Fayose, the governor-elect of Ekiti State, to clinch the unofficial position of the Governor-General of the PDP ahead of him.
Fayose, who is already being addressed the Governor-General of PDp in the Region, will wield so much power as the only PDP governor in the South-West should he be sworn in before Mimiko moves to the PDP.
Another reason, it was gathered was that, given the PDP’s victory in Ekiti and its good showing at the Osun election, the president has said it will stop its funding of Mimiko to mobilise support for him (the president) in the South-West and rather deploy such resource for use in the PDP with Fayose in charge.
The president, it will be recalled, was accused in a letter written by Olusegun Obasanjo last December of funding the opposition even against candidates of the PDP as experienced during the Anambra and Ondo governorship elections.
To ensure such legitimate accusation does not recur, Jonathan had to persuade Mimiko and Obi to join the PDP so that his traducers can be silenced.
For Anambra, not only has Obi joined the PDP, Willie Obiano, his godson whom he has succeeded in installing in the state, will also declare for the PDP any moment from now.
A source told NEWSLEAK that Jonathan needs more state for his to get the report of the National Conference ratified through a constitutional amendment procedure that will begin soon.
He needs 24 states and PDP currently has 20 (18+Ekiti and the recaptured Adamawa) and with Ondo and Anambra now joining to make it 22 PDP controlled-states, the president needs two more states in the South-West, with Oyo and Ogun being the next target.
Mimiko joined the PDP in 2002 after resigning from Adefarati’s government as health commissioner.
He was appointed the Secretary to the State Government in 2003 in the Olusegun Agagu’s government where he was till 2005 when he was appointed Minister by the Obasanjo administration.
In 2006, his resigned from that office to contest against Agagu for the governorship ticket but under the Labour Party platform.
He won the election but was not declared by INEC. It took the courts to reinstate his mandate.
Should Jonathan return in 2015, Mimiko, whose tenure expires in 2016, will be made the Chief of Staff to President Jonathan.
Obi is rehearsing to take over from Pius Anyim as the new Secretary to the Government of the Federation because Anyim is going to run as Ebonyi State governor in 2015.
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