Governor Olusegun Mimiko has explained that the replacement of Eyitayo Jegede as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was an injustice that would not succeed.
Mimiko spoke yesterday at the International Event Centre in Akure when he addressed party supporters.
He described the substitution as a contrived conspiracy, as the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cannot find comfort in justice, principle, law and morality.
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He expressed hope that the party and its stakeholders would get justice at the court because the culture of impunity would not stand.
Mimiko said the contraption was a bizarre development in the politics of the country, especially in the state because it was done without precedence in the polity.
The governor refuted the allegation that he had gone to visit President Muhammadu Buhari as a smart move to negotiate his defection to the APC or any other political party.
He said: “I had to see the president in my capacity as the chief security officer of the state to brief him on the need to allow justice to prevail. The president promised to ensure that justice is done and I have no cause to doubt him.”
Mimiko lauded the people of the state for their maturity by not resorting to self help and violence in the face of the unwarranted provocation unleashed through the backdoor.
“You have comported yourselves in a very commendable way. Your peaceful, but rugged and persistent resistance in the last three and half weeks, would go down in the record of the new Ondo State
“Ordinarily, in other climes, there could have been violence, but the people made it clear that the peace which had been enjoyed in the last seven and half years would not be truncated,” he said.
He urged the people to sustain the peace and pledged to ensure that it continues till his last day in office.
He enjoined the people to go to their respective communities to campaign for the party, assuring that Jegede would certainly emerge as the next governor.
Meanwhile, a group, the Coalition for Stable Democracy (CSD), has expressed concern over what it called the “suspicious silence” of the pro-democracy movement and right groups on the controversial issue.
The group said it is necessary for all lovers of democracy to speak out against the injustice by the INEC in a questionable circumstance.
In a statement in Kaduna by its National Secretary, Abdulahi Sanni, the group said all men of good conscience must speak in condemnation of the act, especially considering the allegation that the All Progressive Congress (APC) was behind the PDP crisis in the state.
