A member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of All Progressives Congress (APC) and gubernatorial aspirant of the party in Ondo State, Chief Jamiu Ekungba has boasted that he will defeat Governor Olusegun Mimiko at his unit, ward and local government if he gets the ticket of the party. 

But the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kayode Akinmade who described Ekungba as a “political neophyte and an emergency politician” advised him to rather focus on what he would do for the people and not make Governor Mimiko the issue.

Ekungba who stated this in Idanre at the weekend while speaking with newsmen, said that he was building a very strong structure in Ondo town and has been maintaining a formidable structure in the area. 

He claimed that Governor Mimiko lost the political grip of the state in the presidential election and allegedly used thugs to manipulate the House of Assembly polls. 

“I am not talking about any other candidate but I, Jamiu Ekungba will defeat Mimiko in his domain, I can give you that assurance. You see in the presidential election, I ruffled his feather, and he used thugs and other things to set our structures back in the House of Assembly election. 
 
“I won’t tell you the secret now, but we will defeat him in his home town, I will win Ondo town clearly and squarely,” he said, assuring that there will be a time that no other party except the APC will exist in the state. 

Ekungba expressed hope that the party will pick “a candidate that is Ondo State by birth and by heart, who is progressive and not by association, who will win the state for the APC in the coming election.” 
 
Nonetheless, the State Commissioner for Information, who said that Ekungba was a “political neophyte and an emergency politician” advised him to rather focus on what he would do for the Ondo people if he emerges as governor as against making Governor Mimiko the issue.

“The man does not know too much about Ondo politics. What politicians like him do is to hang on a governor like Mimiko rather than on issues, thinking that the moment they attack Mimiko, that it will give them leeway. But it is rather unfortunate. Rather than articulating what he would do, if he gets there, his focus is to win Mimiko in his own ward, very unfortunate,” he stated in an interview with The Guardian

The commissioner said that Mimiko was not the issue in the coming election and should not be made the issue as Ondo people would rather want to know what each aspirant to the seat of the governor of the state have to offer them.

His words: “Mimiko is not the issue, let them talk on developmental issues, what they want to do for the people … God has helped Mimiko, he has spent his second term in office. Ekungba is not contesting with Mimiko in the coming election, he is contesting with the PDP and the party has structures in place all over the state. PDP is controlling the 18 local government areas; it has 22 out of 26 members of the State House of Assembly and the legislative arm is principally dominated by PDP, so he is not getting it.

“Everybody knows Mimiko’s antecedents. Mimiko in Ondo state has been two time commissioner, he has been an SSG in the state and he has been a federal minister and two time governor and somebody who is unknown in the political history of Ondo state is now coming out to challenge him.”

Furthermore, Akinmade said: “Our advice is that all these emergency politicians who surface when elections draw near should talk about developmental issues. Ekungba has no pedigree in Ondo politics. Let him and his members in APC go and reorganize their party, and try to bring their party together because you know for now their party is factionalised. They have four or five factions in Ondo State”

The Commissioner for Information assured that there was nothing to worry about on the part of PDP as the administration of Mimiko has delivered, stressing: “When the time for campaign comes, our people know what to do, our people are not foolish. They are happy with the developmental programme of Governor Mimiko.

“In the last seven years or so Mimiko has been able to change the face of things in Ondo state, he has turned Ondo state to the cynosure of all eyes. Before he came on board, Ondo state had only one dualised road, and he has increased it to seven since he came on board, and as a result of that Ondo state is the only state in Nigeria that has won the United Nation’s Habitat award given to the Governor for his impact in ensuring that he turned the capital of Ondo state to an enviable environment, built a modern market for the traders who were hawking on the streets.”

Meanwhile during the Christmas celebrations in the state, Ekungba who is a Muslim, extended hands of fellowship and goodwill to Christians, communities and 203 wards across the 18 LGAs of Ondo State.

While anchoring the distribution of rice, chickens and cash gifts in his Owo hometown, Owo LGA of the state, he said he has been extending such goodwill to the people of his community since 1972 though he joined the Christian counterparts recently.

According to him, his late father called his “attention to it precisely in 1992 that you have been taking care of the Muslims during Ileya and fasting, in our family there are Christians, why didn’t you take care of them? I said during Ileya I took care of Christians too, but he retorted that they too have their own festivals.”

His words: “The motive behind it is this: to whom God has given, one must do what I call charity, that is exactly what it is; you must give out because the festive mood is to give out to the less privileged so that everybody can feel what you are feeling in your house.

Ekungba noted that he hated politics from the onset and “at that time I saw politicians as the devil then, before our leaders like Ahmed Tinubu, Shekarau, Fayemi and Aregbesola came to sermonize me that if we allow thugs, idiots and vagabonds to continue to rule this country, those of you who think you are good will have no moral right to complain.”

He insisted that aspersions from critics, who might intend to discredit his actions, as being borne out of his governorship ambition in 2016 election, would not distract him from extending such goodwill to the people.