Ondo State Governorship Election: Olusegun Mimiko accuses Rotimi Akeredolu of employment scam

Olusegun Mimiko, Ondo State incumbent Governor

Olusegun Mimiko Campaign Organisation has alleged that the campaign organisation of the Action Congress of Nigeria’s candidate for the October 20 governorship election in Ondo State, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, asked applicants to pay N1,000 for employment registration form.

According to the group, the Akeredolu campaign organisation “are surreptitiously trying to raise funds for his campaign activities through the phantom offer of 30,000 jobs”.

Governor Olusegun Mimiko, through the Director of Publicity and Media Relations of his Campaign organisation, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, made the allegation on Wednesday.


He claimed that Akeredolu’s offer of 30,000 jobs within 100 days in office, if elected, was meant to raise money for his campaign.

Mimiko also alleged that the ACN candidate “was playing to the gallery and attempting to hoodwink the people of the state over what he knows was mere puff and invitation to treat”.

But Akeredolu Campaign Organisation, through its Director General, Mr. Banji Ayiloge, said there was no truth to in Mimiko’s allegation .

Ayiloge said, “What the Mimiko administration is doing is to deceive people and to lie to them in order to score immediate political gain. But our people are smarter; they will not fall for such lie. If people are unemployed and we are not in government, what will be their incentives to give us N1,000?”

The former Commissioner for Information said the directive of the ACO was for the unemployed to go to their respective local governments and register. Ayiloge added, “Akeredolu will use the money being wasted by the current administration on frivolous projects to provide jobs for the unemployed in the state.”

However, Mimiko Campaign Organisation insisted that “if Akeredolu wants to raise money, he should tell the whole world the law which entitles him to raise funds for his campaign.” He added, “Akeredolu never realised the enormity of the position for which he sought to contest and this is clear from the fact that up till the last moment he couldn’t even perfect his nomination papers.

“When it dawned on him that this was not a child’s play, he decided to play a fast one on the unsuspecting people of the state to raise funds for his campaign under veiled guise.”

Meanwhile, the state government on Wednesday demanded a probe into the ACN’s allegation that weapons were brought into the state ahead of the governorship election.

The ACN through the Rotimi Akeredolu Campaign Organisation had alleged that more than 100 AK 47 rifles, shotguns and others dangerous weapons had been brought into the state.

But the state Commissioner for Information Mr. Kayode Akinmade, in a statement, said, “Going by the dictum that says whoever alleges must prove, the security agencies in the state must probe the allegation made by the ACN.”

He stressed the need for security agencies to step into the issue of the alleged arms importation. He said, “We in Ondo State are peace loving people. The era of political thuggery as witnessed during the First and Second Republics in over.”