A former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimoko, has tendered his letter of resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party.
However, his move to rejoin the Labour Party, through which he rode to power as governor and secured reelection, has been rebuffed.
Mimiko, in a letter to the Ondo State chapter of the PDP on Wednesday, said his decision to leave the party was personal to him.
He wrote: “I hereby with utmost humility inform you of my decision to resign my membership of the PDP with effect from today, June 13, 2018, for some well-thought-out personal reasons.
“It was an honour working with the many prominent Nigerians with whom I shared the PDP platform for the entire period I was in there as a member. Accept please the assurance of my very high regards.”
But Mimiko’s move to rejoin the Labour Party has been rebuffed.
The National Chairman of the party, Dr. Mike Omotosho, made this known while addressing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja.
Omotosho also said the party has no candidate for the forthcoming governorship election in Ekiti state.
According to him, the NLC is fully aware of plans by Mimiko to destabilize the current gains being made by workers to reclaim and reposition the Labour Party.
He said: “It is very obvious that the sole purpose of Mimiko’s re-approach to Labour Party is to use the workers’ party to launder his sagging political image.
“Nigerians would recall that Mimiko abandoned the Labour Party for the Peoples Democratic Party a few days to Labour Party’s October 2015 National Convention.
“Such a treachery and betrayal of a party that gave the former Governor succour in the darkest hour of his political career.
“Especially as it manifests in his two term victory on the ticket of Labour Party is to say the least, cheap and callous.
“It also revealed paucity of knowledge of the philosophy of the Labour Party as a people-rooted party and dearth of class consciousness on his part.”
Omotosho said the Labour Party was an offspring of the working class family and was midwifed by the labour movement.
He also said the party was the political vehicle for Nigerian workers and the Nigerian poor.
He added that the party was also founded on the cornerstone of ideological clarity and class consciousness to promote and defend the political cum socio-economic interest of the working people.
He said: “There is no doubt that political journey persons like the former Governor of Ondo had in the past taken advantage of the leadership challenges in the Labour Party to satisfy their fantasies for political opportunism.
“The labour movement in alliance with its civil society partners and other patriotic Nigerians is poised to fully reclaim the Labour Party and restore it as a model political institution.
“That does not only epitomise the values of the working class family but also capable of contesting for power with members of a failed political class, with whom the former Governor dines and wines.”
The chairman further said the leadership of the congress would continues to work to rebuild the Labour Party, especially through the instrumentality of the Political Commission.
He, however, urged all workers and indeed genuine lovers of popular democracy to ignore the political theatrics of people like the former Governor of Ondo State.
Omotosho said: “He has shown Nigerian workers that he cannot be trusted.
“The Labour Party is no longer a transit bus to strange political destinations, particularly under the subterfuge of people like him.
“In the same vein, the Nigeria Labour Congress wishes to categorically disown and-condemn recent posturing and proclamations by some politicians in Ekiti State that they are the candidates of the Labour Party in the forthcoming governorship elections in Ekiti State.
“The Labour Party has no candidate in the July 14, 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State.
“lNEC, workers and the Ekiti electorate should not allow themselves to be hoodwinked by the antics of political impostors.”
Omotosho said all political aspirants in the Labour Party were requested to deal only with the Screening Committee of the party.