Gov Mimiko meets Buhari, says INEC decisions on Ibrahim will set Ondo on fire

Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo state has said that the decision of INEC to include the name of Mr Jimoh Ibrahim as PDP candidate for the coming governorship election in the state will have dire consequences.

Mimiko told State House, Abuja correspondents on Friday, after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari that he came to see the president to inform him that INEC’s decision had the potential of setting the state on fire.

He revealed that President Buhari had assured him that he would look into the issue with a view to ensuring that where there is injustice, it would be rectified.

According to him, “This action potentially can cause a breach of peace. In Ondo State in the last seven and half years, we have done everything possible to put good governance on the table and promote peace.

“We see this action as potentially dangerous. It can cause conflagration in the state and that is why as the Chief Security Officer of the state, I have come to alert Mr. President of the potential danger of this injustice so that we can nip it in the bud.”

Mimiko described the INEC move as an injustice to the people of the state, adding that he was shocked because the development had no basis in law or politics.

“I am shocked. In logic, in law, in politics, there is no basis for this decision whatsoever.,” the governor said.

He explained that the court order upon which the INEC based its decision was about zonal and state executives of the PDP and was not about the 2016 election.

Read also: ONDO: Protests rock streets as INEC explains action, Jegede heads to A’Court

He further noted that Ibrahim and Eyitayo Jegede were not parties to the suit, and that INEC initially took the right decision by making it clear that it was not state or zonal executive that was empowered by the Electoral Act to conduct election.

He also added that while INEC and security agencies monitored the party’s primary elections that produced Jegede in Akure, Ibrahim held his primary in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital when there was no threat to peace in Akure.

“Apart from the fact that we have two restraining orders on INEC, the commission knows fully well that Jimoh Ibrahim’s primaries was in Ibadan.

“There was no report by security agencies that the security situation in Ondo State warranted the movement of the primaries to Ibadan or anywhere outside the state for that matter.

“Under INEC guidelines, the time for substitution of candidates has even elapsed”, the governor said.

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