I was pressurised to join ACN – Mimiko

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko on Thursday said his refusal to join the Action Congress of Nigeria after much pressure was the cause of the face-off between him and the party leaders.

Mimiko also alleged that “nothing but expansionist tendency and the desire to annex Ondo State rather than any desire to develop it are the prime reasons why the leadership of the party want to capture the state at all cost”.

He said this while addressing the people of Ile-Oluji, Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government in continuation of his campaign tour ahead of the October 20 governorship election.

A statement by the Director, Media and Publicity of his Campaign Organisation, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, also stated that Mimiko told the people that the desire by the political party “to annex Ondo State was to include it in their flagging empire which they are attempting to build in the South-West”.

Mimiko, however, warned the opposition to forget about “capturing” the state, on October 20.

The governor, according to the statement, was unhappy that the opposition parties had been boasting that they would capture the state.

He said the people of the state were “not animals that could be captured and caged as the opposition parties are posturing”.

He said, “They did not say I have not performed; in fact, they acknowledged that Ondo State is working. But they said I should come and join their party and we told them that the people have not asked us to join any political party as the Labour Party is doing fine.

“They then threatened to make the state ungovernable and capture it if we did not join them. But let me warn that they should remember the fates of the boastful in history; God abhors the boastful.

“They are haughty and want to ride roughshod over our people and add them to their empire. But I can assure them that God will thwart their evil plans and they shall fail.”

Punch Nigeria