By Dayo Johnson

Akure—The defection of Governor Olusegun Mimiko to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is generating fresh crisis btween the Ondo State chapter of the Party and the National Secretariat.

Segun Mimiko, Ondo State governor

The party stalwarts in Akure, yesterday, said: “We feel total discomfort and displeasure to the manner his carpet crossing was managed by selected leaders of the party at the national level.’’

They are kicking against how the defection was midwifed adding that the process was done “with a lot of disrespect to the state Party Chairman and members of the State Working Committee.’’

Leaders of the party in a statement by the state Director of Publicity, Ayo Fadaka, said: “We note the fact that the Governor of Ondo State decamped from his Labour Party to our party on October 2, 2014 in a small ceremony in the Presidential Villa and as such want to use this opportunity to welcome him to our Party.’’

The statement entitled: ‘Ondo PDP’s reaction to Mimiko’s defection,’ reads in part; “We want to bring to the fore our total discomfort and displeasure to the manner his carpet crossing was managed by selected leaders of the Party at the National level who midwife the process and did so with a lot of disrespect to the State Party Chairman and members of the State Working Committee.

“ We believe that this action is calculated to treat the entire members of this Party as inconsequential in the fortune of our own party, therefore, we declare that this is grossly unfair and so reject outrightly all the negotiations purportedly entered into on our behalf without our direct input and blessing.

“Therefore, we state in the most unequivocal manner that we repose absolute confidence in the Executives of the Party at every level in the State and will take serious exceptions to any action taken directly or indirectly to harm or dismantle them.

“We also state that we welcome Mimiko and his followers to the Party in their individual capacities, we also respect the constitution of the PDP particularly the recognition that it confers on any Governor who is a member, however, we remain mindful of the fact that he is joining as a Governor.

“We say this because PDP is a big Party with established structures that must not be treated anyhow.

“We also understand that Governor Mimiko’s publicly stated goal of decamping into our Party is to enable him contribute effectively to the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan, we must say this is appreciable but as citizens of Ondo State, we do know that Governor Mimiko currently carries a lot of baggage and liabilities that precludes him from discharging such responsibility.

“He has since descended from that charismatic height he operated from in 2009 when he became Governor to a level of scorn as it is known to the generality of our people that his administration has mismanaged our finances and commonwealth most recklessly, took our State from the level of economic buoyancy to a debtor State where public utilities no longer work.”