Mimiko denies attending PDP meeting in Abuja

By Dayo Johnson
GOVERNOR Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State weekend denied media reports in which he was named as one of the governors who attended the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), alongside PDP bigwigs like the Vice President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan.

Mimiko, who was elected  governor on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, wondered where the reporter who filed the story got his story from, saying that the unfortunate development smacks of mischief.

The statement stated that on Thursday when he was said to be at that meeting, he was in Arigidi Akoko, Ondo State attending  the burial of former Chief Judge of old Ondo State, Hon. Justice Olakunle Orojo with his Deputy, Alhaji Ali Olanusi and members of his cabinet wondered where he was seen at the NEC meeting of a party to which he was not a member.

It would be recalled that the top echelon of the PDP had of recent hinted severally in the press of moves to persuade Dr Mimiko to decamp to the PDP, a party which he was forced to leave on the eve of the April 14, 2007 Gubernatorial election.  But  his party, the LP has vehemently denied the report.

Thus, the report in the media that Mimiko was seen at the PDP NEC meeting last Thursday might have been part of the deliberate attempts to co-opt him into the PDP.