Barely four years after the former Ondo state governor,Dr Olusegun Mimiko and his supporters dumped the Labour Party(LP) for the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP),the medical doctor turned politicians and his supporters will today return to the Labour Party(LP).
Mimiko will visit his ward seven in Ondo West local government where he will collect the LP’s membership card.
He aligned with the PDP shortly before the Presidential election which was eventually won by President Muhammadu Buhari under the platform of the All Progressives Congress(APC).
The former governor who had a brief media parley with reporters in Ondo town has officially tendered his letter of resignation from the PDP.
The letter reads” I hereby with utmost humility inform you of my decision to resign my membership of the PDP with effect from today, June 13, 2018 for some well thought-out personal reasons.
“It was an honour working with many prominent Nigerians whom I shared the PDP platform for the entire period I was there as a member .
“Accept please the assurance of my very high regards”.
Mimiko used the platform of the LP in 2007 to dislodge late governor Olusegun Agagu after winning Appeal Court Verdict held in Benin-city,Edo state capital.
According to him,” I am conscious of my political history and determine to embrace new ideology”.
He pointed out that politics is about choices,stressing that God has the way of every step of human beings in life.
The former governor appreciated for his political exploits as Commissioner,Secretary to the State Government(SSG) Minister,and two term Governor,stressing that his decision to move to the LP would be value-added.
He however hinged his exit from PDP simply to ‘comprehensive frustration’.
The state chairman of PDP,Clement Faboyede who served as Commissioner for Community Development and Cooperative Services under Mimiko’s administration said his exit would not derail the major opposition party.
According to him,the PDP leadership in the state and other stakeholders had done their best to change Mimiko’s mind to remain in the party, but all efforts proved futile.
But in a twist, the Labour Party (LP) said on Wednesday that former Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko would not be welcomed back, accusing the former governor of turning its back on them at its darkest hour when the party needed him most.
The party also said that it was not sponsoring any candidate for the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State, saying anybody currently parading himself as the Labour Party candidate should be treated as an impostor.
Addressing a news conference at the NLC secretariat in Abuja, National Chairman of the party, Dr. Mike Omotosho supported by the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba alleged that the former governor was trying to use the party to regain political relevance once again, adding that the part will not allow him do that this time.
He said “It has come to our knowledge the moves by the immediate past Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko to return to the Labour Party. Nigerian workers Wish to put a disclaimer to this ill-fated adventure.
“The Nigeria Labour Congress is fully aware of plans by Dr. Olusegun Mimiko to destabilize the current gains being made by workers to reclaim and reposition the Labour Party. It is very obvious that the sole purpose of Dr. Mimiko’s re-approach to the Labour Party is to use the party to launder his sagging political image.
“Nigerians would recall that Dr. Mimiko abandoned the Labour Party for the People’s Democratic Party a few days to Labour Party’s October 2015 National Convention.
“Such a treachery and betrayal of a party that gave the former Governor succor in the darkest hour of his political career especially as manifest in his two term victory on the ticket of Labour Party is to say the least, cheap and callous. it also revealed paucity of knowledge of the philosophy of the Labour Party as a peoples’ rooted party and dearth of class consciousness on his part.
“The Labour Party is an offspring of the working class family and was midwifed by the labour movement. it is the political vehicle for Nigerian workers and the Nigerian poor.
“It was founded on the cornerstone of ideological clarity and class consciousness to promote and defend the political cum socio-economic interest of the working people. There is no doubt that political journey persons like the former Governor of Ondo had in the past taken advantage of the leadership challenges in the Labour Party to satisfy their fantasies for political opportunism.
“Well, all those have changed. The labour movement, in alliance with its civil society partners and other patriotic Nigerians, is poised to fully reclaim the Labour Party and restore it as a model political institution that does not only epitomize the Values of the working class family but also capable of contesting for power with members of a failed political class, with whom the former Governor dines and wines.
“While the leadership of Congress continues to work to rebuild the Labour Party especially through the instrumentality of our Political Commission, we urge all workers and indeed genuine lovers of popular democracy to ignore the political theatrics of people like the former Governor of Ondo State.
“He has shown Nigerian workers that he cannot be trusted. The Labour Party is no longer a transit bus to strange political destinations particularly under the subterfuge of people like him.”
Speaking on the forthcoming governorship election in Ekiti State, Omotosho said the party has no candidate for the election, saying “the Nigeria Labour Congress wishes to categorically disown and-condemn recent posturing and proclamations by some ‘ politicians in Ekiti State that they are the candidates of the Labour Party in the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti State.
“The Labour Party has no candidate in the July 14, 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State. lNEC, workers and the Ekiti electorate should not allow themselves to be hoodwinked by the antics of political impostors.”
While asking aspirants wishing to contest election on the platform of the part6 to deal with the Screening Committee of the party only, he warned that “on no account should anyone engage in any form of financial transaction on issues related with the Labour Party with A. A. Salam and Julius Abure.
“Right now, the Labour Party is pre-occupied with strategic repositioning aimed at re-energizing our capacity as a people for issuebased politics and ideologically driven political contestations.
“We urge politicians like the former Governor of Ondo State to stay clear of the new Labour Party because we are aware of their gimmicks to lure the Labour Party in the direction of other political parties with the hope of rehabilitating their dwindling political relevance. As they say “once bitten, twice shy”.
NLC President, Ayuba Wabba said on the occasion that the Labour Party which was registered by Organised Labour and its civil society allies was not a place where anybody can jump in an Court at will, adding that the time when people come in to use the name of the party to earn political gains was over as the “owners of the party”were ready to reposition it to challenge for office in the next elections.
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