The Ondo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has announced that it would not make public the inauguration of its Presidential Campaign Council on Thursday (today).
The announcement came after a chieftain of the party and former governor of the state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, said he did not consent to his purported inclusion in the state PDP’s PCC list.
In a statement by the Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Kennedy Peretei, the party has decided to do the inauguration quietly.
“The Atiku/Okowa Campaign Train will arrive in Ondo State on 2nd November 2022. There will be a pre-event press conference to intimate our media partners on all arrangements. Therefore, we intend to make the inauguration an in-house affair without media coverage,” the statement read.
Meanwhile , Dr Mimiko, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Digital Communications, Mr John Akinduro, said his principal was never consulted nor agreed to be in the campaign council list.
He also denied a report making the rounds that he was against some governors of the PDP on the agitation for regional equity in the party.
The statement read, “Dr Olusegun Mimiko has been inundated with calls and messages from the general public, and his political friends and concerned individuals around the nation; and in particular, his teeming supporters across the length and breadth of Ondo State, seeking clarity on fake news making the rounds since yesterday that he had ditched Governors Nyesom Wike, Seyi Makinde and their colleagues’ governors, and abandoned the agitation for regional equity within the PDP; and in particular, making a party member of southern extraction its the national chairman before the 2023 election.
“The report and the list that triggered it, are fake and a deliberate attempt to muddle things up and smear Dr. Olusegun Mimiko.
“It must be stated with emphasis that Dr. Mimiko was neither consulted by anyone nor consented to his inclusion in any Ondo state PDP Presidential Campaign Council list.
“For the avoidance of doubt and to set the record straight, Dr Mimiko is unwavering in his commitment to the principle of equity, fairness, and justice through which he believes a credible push for a PDP victory is possible. He fully subscribes to the agitation by his colleagues and other stakeholders in PDP and the generality of Nigerians that the PDP structure must reflect Nigeria’s diversity if it genuinely wants to unify a visibly divided country.”
