Mimiko: I Had No Pact with ACN

Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has dismissed allegations by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that he reneged on an agreement reached with leaders of ACN that he would quit Labour Party (LP) as soon as the court declared him winner of the April 14, 2007 governorship election.

In his first press interview since he assumed office as the governor of Ondo State in his office in Akure on Monday, Mimiko said he never had any agreement with anybody that he would switch over to ACN, saying such insinuations were only products of propaganda.
Mimiko who said he had since addressed key issues over the allegation, that he had deliberately opted to be silent over abuses poured on him by ACN leaders, saying he had opted to toe the path of honour by declining to respond to such abuses but rather to address issues generated by the development. “I have responded to key issues but I have not responded to abuses. I didn’t have any agreement with anybody to move to ACN,” the governor said.

ACN leaders had at a presidential campaign rally in Akure in February 2011, accused the governor of reneging on the agreement he had with them before his court victory in February 2009 that he would defect from Labour Party describing his action as a betrayal. But Mimiko who said he would never abuse anyone said at no time and place did he reach such an agreement with anybody.
Mimiko who recalled that since the advent of civil rule in 1999, he had moved from Alliance for Democracy (AD) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) before finally defecting to Labour Party (LP) prior to 2007 general election, stressed that in all the instances that he had changed parties, his reasons for leaving such parties had always been justifiable.

According to him, he left AD prior to the 2003 general election because it was obvious for all to see that internal democracy was dead in the party adding that he again left the PDP to contest the 2007 election on the platform of Labour Party because some perceived powerful elements in the party had shut the door against his governorship ambition and thrown the key into the water