Maverick businessman,
Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, has returned to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with the
sole aim of seeking the party's ticket to contest the 2016
November
governorship election in Ondo State, a source disclosed to SaharaReporters.
According to the
source, Mr. Ibrahim has concluded plans to launch his campaign, beginning with
moves to take control of party structures in all the wards in the State.
The source added
that Mr. Ibrahim has started consulting with aggrieved members of the party,
pleading with them to team up with him to restore the party's glory.
“These are original
members. They were in the party when Governor Segun Mimiko came from the Labour
Party to seize the PDP structure. They are aggrieved because they consider
themselves original owners of the party,” the source explained.
Another impeccable
source hinted that Mr. Ibrahim has also begun discussions with the embattled
factional PDP National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, over plans to take the party
structure from Mr. Mimiko.
The source said a
major plank of the strategy agreed at a meeting held in Abuja is to use members
of the defunct All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), of which Mr. Ibrahim and Mr.
Sheriff were members. Mr. Ibrahim, SaharaReporters also learnt, is trying to
woo members of the Accord Party (AP). He was said to have met with some
national leaders of the party in Akure last month.
The PDP in the State
has been in crisis over the Mimiko's support for Eyitayo Jegede, former
Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, who resigned to contest the
governorship.
SaharaReporters can
authoritatively report that Jegede, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has been
anointed as successor, but that development is a cause of widespread
disaffection.
“How can Mimiko, who
is from the Central Senatorial District, still want to install Jegede, who is
also from the same district, as his successor? This is not acceptable.
“Mimiko purposely
picked Jegede because he knows he would cover-up all his atrocities, but we
will not accept that,” an aggrieved party member said.
The duo of Sola
Ebeseni and Bamiduro Dada, both commissioners under Mimko and seeking the
governorship ticket of the party, recently resigned from the cabinet on account
of Mr. Mimiko's support for Jegede.
Mr. Banji Okunomo,
the PDP spokesman in the state, told sources close to SaharaReporters that the
party is willing to conduct a primary election in August to choose its
candidate.
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