BY Dayo Johnson
Akure—FRESH facts have emerged why the Chairman of Labour Patry, LP, in Ondo State, Dr Olaiya Oni, resigned even as the party said yesterday his resignation would not affect the party negetively.

Reacting to the development, Public Relation Officer, PRO, of LP in the state Femi Okunjemiruwa said “there is no cause for alarm; we will react at the appropriate time.”

Okunjemiruwa told newsmen that the party was still studying the situation and at the appropriate time will react to his allegations against the governor.

Dr Oni was alleged have been secretly meeting with chieftains of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, in Lagos in the last three months.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko was said to be aware of such.

Investigations revealed that the former chairman was unhappy with the governor for not nominating him as a Minister/Special Assistance to President Goodluck Jonathan after the April election.

The governor was also accused of not awarding contract to the former Chairman since he became governor.

It was said the governor and chairman fell apart when Mimiko refused to dethrone a traditional ruler in his home town in Akoko North East Area of the state.

The former Chairman was said to have insisted that the governor should sack the Oba whom he “sees as a close ally of the opposition PDP.”

He was quoted as telling some of his friends that “if as the state chairman of a ruling party he cannot remove a rude Oba then he will cause confusion in the same party by resigning.”

The former Chairman, who resigned on Saturday, accused the governor of ‘self seeking and ready to sacrifice any relationship for personal interests’.

Olaiya Oni also spoke of his frustration that Dr Mimiko had not given him the benefit of a single contract as the State Chairman of his Party.

To this the opposition Peoples Democratic Party PDP in the state said Olaiya Oni is inconsistent.

LP in a statement by its Director of Publicity, Ayo Fadaka  said “Dr Olaiya Oni was always crying for more patronage and like the proverbial Oliver Twist continually asking for more in all instance, whenever he is no longer obliged, he looks for the next train to join. The reason given by Oni for his resignation typifies what has been the existential reality of the governance of this State under the Labour Party administration.

“It had been a government where appointments and patronages has been driven by consanguinity and not by considerations that will guarantee the advance the progress of the State, where contracts are awarded not essentially to provide service but to take money out of the coffers of the State and put same in the pockets of those that are sufficiently close to Mr Governor.

At the time of this report, the state government as had not reacted to the chairman resignation, but sources said it would not want to dignify the situation.

However, ACN’s the Director of Media & Publicity, ACN, Gbenga Akinmoyo, said in Akure that the party celebrated the courage of the former Chairman and commended him for his revelation.

According to a statement he signed Akinmoyo said “ It is noteworthy that this elder statesman recognises that he was about to jeopardise everything that he has achieved in his public service and had decided to abandon the Labour Party. No doubt more revelations will unfold within the weeks ahead, but we seize this opportunity to call on progressive minded citizens of the Sunshine State to follow the sterling example of Olaiya Oni and join the Action Congress of Nigeria today.”