Mimiko accuses Aregbesola of hiring cleric to hypnotise Ondo voters

By DAYO JOHNSON
AKURE—THE Olusegun Mimiko Campaign Organisation, weekend,  in Akure,  alleged that the Osun State Governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has hired an Iwo Moslem cleric (names withheld) to wreck havoc in Ondo State by planting fetish substances in major towns in the state.

The group alleged that Aregbesola, who is the arrow-head of the onslaught against the Olusegun Mimiko administration  had in recent times  vowed to ”capture”  Ondo State for his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

According to the organisation, Gov.  Aregbesola had hired the Iwo-born cleric, who was alleged to be behind the training of some Moslem hard men in Osun State to carry out several nocturnal sacrifices in Ondo, Owo, Ikare, Akure and Okitipupa with a view to turning the hearts of the people of the state against Gov.  Mimiko spiritually.

In a statement, the organisation’s Director of Publicity and Media Relations, Mr Kolawole Olabisi, alleged that the fetish sacrifices for which the cleric had been paid N25 million are to be executed on or before September 10, barely a month to the October 20 governorship election in the state.

ACN reacts

Reacting, the Director of Media and Strategy of the ACN in Osun State, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, said: “The statement credited to Kolawole Olabisi of Mimiko Campaign Organisation falls below the expected standard of intelligence and professional proficiency of a spokesperson of a political campaign organisation because they are outright false propaganda.

“Everybody in Ondo State knows that the desperate candidate, who is running helter-skelter to save his job is Gov. Mimiko himself, who has a notorious antecedent for playing outside the rule of the game and blackmailing his opponents.

“Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s interest in Ondo State does not have a tinge of desperation and he, therefore, has no need whatsoever to engage anyone in fetish deals to obstruct or destroy the lives of the very same people which the ACN wants to liberate from Mimiko’s misrule in Ondo State.

“It is a great pity, indeed, that Mr Olabisi is latching on to a discredited allegation from Aregbesola’s opponents in Osun State which falsely accused him of seccessionist tendency to tag him as a trouble-maker and an Islamic zealot.

“Mimiko’s troubles in Ondo State are entirely his own making and if his job is threatened today, it is only the people of Ondo State who will determine his fate. To think that someone  from elsewhere can use fetish means to make Ondo people behave irregularly at the polls is the hallucination of a nitwit.

“If Mimiko had done well, his campaign organisation will have nothing to fear, but will simply go about demonstrating the ‘good work’ of the governor which will be enough to convince the people.”