Governor Olusegun Mimiko Joins PDP

Less than five months before the 2015 general elections, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has dumped the Labour Party, LP, to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The Governor made the formal declaration at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday, 2 October, 2014 at an event presided over by Vice President Namadi Sambo.
Punch reports that Mimiko led two members of the National Assembly from Ondo state, all the 26 members of the state House of Assembly, all members of the State Executive Council and his supporters to the PDP.

Speaking at the occasion, Mimiko told the gathering that included the President of the Senate David Mark, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State and leaders of the PDP from the South-West that: “I, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, following extensive consultations across the land, today finally announce the decision of members of the National Assembly from the LP in Ondo State, members of the LP in the Ondo State, members of the LP in the Ondo State House of Assembly, members of the State Executive Council and indeed all those who share our aspirations, to join the PDP.”
The governor, who was in the PDP before the 2007 governorship election, said he took the decision to return to PDP in the overall interest of his people and the nation.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State

Mimiko added that his immediate target was to help the process of getting President Goodluck Jonathan re-elected in 2015.
Mark, in his remarks, said he was happy that Mimiko decided to return from his “self-exile.”
He said it was the desire and wish of the party leadership that the governor reconciles everybody within the party.
This latest development is coming after Governor Mimiko few weeks ago described his reported plan to defect to the PDP, as “a rumour”.
“I don’t want to react to that because it is a mere rumour,”  the governor told newsmen after the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the Labour Party, LP, in Abuja on Wednesday, 10 September, 2014.
It would be recalled that Governor Mimiko was a former member of the Alliance for Democracy, AD, and had served as Health Commissioner in the administration of late Governor Adebayo Adefarati between 1999 and 2003.
During the administration of late Olusegun Agagu in Ondo state, Mimiko defected to the PDP and served as Secretary to the deceased governor.
Mimiko was later appointed the Minister of Housing. He however resigned his ministerial position and defected to the LP to contest the Ondo state governorship election in 2007 which he won. The governor was re-elected in 2012.