Ondo 2016: I am on familiar terrain; no aggressive campaign – Jimoh Ibrahim

Governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, on Monday declared that he would not embark on an aggressive or intensive campaign to win the forthcoming election, saying he was on familiar terrain

Ibrahim who stated this in Akure, the Ondo State capital, during a parley with journalists in the state, said he was not new in the politics of the state and would need little or no introduction to the electorate in the state as he had paid his dues.

He said, “This is not my first time of running for the governorship of the state. In 2003, I ran for the governorship of the state under ANPP. So politics is not new and I’m not like those people who are running for the first time. I need not to do all the work by moving to all the nooks and corners of Ondo State.

“I am not new to the people of Ondo State. I had very impressive result at the last engagement when I ran for the governorship of this state. It’s my ambition to become the governor of this state and I’m back to realise that ambition.”

Speaking on the choice of Eyitayo Jegede by the Markafi faction of the party in the state, he said “Jegede is brand new in the system. He’s new and let him take his time. It took me 2008 to the present date to join this political legitimacy. You cannot come just in one day and begin to think you can win election like that in Ondo State. Nobody can just come and enter like that. Take your time and queue behind.”

Ibrahim, who debunked the insinuation that he has no political structure in the state and that he was in the race to spoil the state governor, Olusegun Mimiko’s political calculation, Ibrahim said, “Even a blind man knows that we are running for the governorship of the state. I don’t need to pay back Mimiko at this time and if I have anything against Mimiko I can sue him at the end of his tenure and who tells you that the fight ends when he has finished from office. If I have any petition against him I can write it after he leaves office.”

Speaking on his vision for the people of the state, Ibrahim said priority will be given to the prompt payment of workers’ salaries in the state while workers would be exposed to training and retraining to ensure the state workers are the best in the country.

His words, “I need to take the state from the hopeless situation as now to a very hopeful situation. I need to take away injustice; we cannot afford to have a senatorial district producing governors for 16 years at a go. That is completely injustice, that is hopeless and we will not allow that, and that will not happen in Ondo State.

“My priority is the payment of outstanding salaries of workforce because it is the workforce that can deliver the dividends of democracy or deliver efficiency and effectiveness. The public service is really my own major focus. I want them to be trained and retrained and I want them to be first among equal in public service spectrum in Nigeria.

“I am not coming to close people’s businesses down; I’m going to encourage entrepreneurs to ensure efficiency and capability development, a strategy of innovation in the work force.”

The PDP candidate, who expressed optimism of winning the governorship election, assured the people of the state of massive industrial revolution and utilization of natural resources for sea ports, stating that his government would provide a conducive atmosphere through partial tax integration system to attract more investors in the state.