A former deputy national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), Chief Olabode George has been fingered as the chief antagonist of former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko’s bid to install his protégé, Eyitayo Jegede as the next governor after him.
As we gathered, George, a former military governor of Ondo State belonged to the same Ahmed Makarfi faction as Mimiko. But the internal crises rocking the party hierarchy worked against Mimiko’s interest in the last minutes.
An inside source said that he foresaw the PDP losing to the rival All Progressives Congress, (APC) in the last governorship election because the PDP leaders went to that poll sharply divided.
We were told that a last minute meeting was called to reconcile Dr. Mimiko and Chief George, but that the meeting failed to hold because majority of those against Mimiko believed he was the architect of his own problem. Recall also, that billionaire businessman, Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, was a popular opposition to Mimiko’s bid to install a stooge. insiders said that what Jimoh did was ‘payback’ because the former governor allegedly betrayed him in a gentleman agreement they had. However, there was a move to reconcile both of them. But the internal crisis of the PDP that pitched Jimoh Ibrahim and Chief George against each other on one hand, and the ego crisis between Chief George and Mimiko, prevented the reconciliation meeting to hold.
A former commissioner for environment in Mimiko’s government, Chief Sola Ebiseni had shown interest in becoming governor after Mimiko, according to sources, but when he approached the former governor for his support, he was allegedly asked to give out the sum of N500, 000, 000 (five hundred million naira) to earn the governor’s backing.
Besides, Governor Mimiko’s insistence in bringing a candidate from his Ondo West senatorial district to succeed him angered most party members, particularly people from Ondo South who had looked forward to winning the seat after Mimiko. This, perhaps, necessitated the support Barrister Rotimi Akeredolu, the APC candidate in the election enjoyed from some PDP members.
It was also gathered that, based on Mimiko’s many ‘sins’, Chief Bode George refused to honour a meeting organized by a concerned Ondo citizen to reconcile Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim and Mimiko in the buildup to the election. Sources said that, had Mimiko won Jimoh Ibrahim’s support via the aborted meeting organized at the instance of a mutual friend and billed to hold at Chief George’s Lagos house, it would have been a different story for the PDP in the State.
-Biodun Fariogun
