ZLP is the party to beat in Ondo election —Ajayi’s Campaign DG

The Director General of the Ajayi Governorship Campaign Organisation, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Dr Kola Ademujimi, in this interview, speaks to Hakeem Gbadamosi the readiness and chances of the party at next Saturday’s polls.

How true is the news to collapse of the ZLP with PDP in order to win the forthcoming governorship election?

According to INEC time table, it is too late for any candidate to withdraw from the race now, even if you want to withdraw voluntarily, it is not possible by law. So from the preponderances of opinion from the field, ZLP has the candidate to beat in the election. This is one of the reasons people are speculating about other political parties joining us in an alliance, but the truth is that it is too late for that now. We are in the contest and from the opinion of people, we remain the best in the election.

But it was learnt that some leaders of the PDP have been mounting pressure on former governor Mimiko who is the leader of your party to give his support to Jegede in the election.

I want to confirm to you that this is another rumor that is not correct. It might be the wish of some people, but it cannot come to reality because Mimiko remains with the ZLP and he is the national leader of the party and his party is sponsoring a candidate in the Ondo election and the candidates are Agboola Ajayi as the governorship candidate and Gboye Adegbenro as his running mate.

But will it be a welcome development if the PDP decides to collapse its structure with ZLP ahead of the election.

It will be a welcome development as we both have a common enemy in this race. Nobody wants Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to return as the governor of the state because he has not done well in his first term and doesn’t deserve another term. He has been the only one assessing himself in this election, giving himself pass mark. But the electorate are saying he has not done well. Akeredolu allowed his family too much involvement in the running of the government. That must be the reason people are calling for ZLP and PDP to have collaboration to send out Akeredolu. So, if we have an upper hand in ZLP and assurance that the PDP will cooperate with us  to ensure Akeredolu does not return to the seat.

How prepared is your camp or ZLP?

We are ready. We are the party to beat. We want to thank God that everywhere you go in Ondo State today, people will tell you that the vote is for Agboola. People are saying that in Ondo State, we need a politician. We need an indigene, not just an indigene but a resident that is particularly based in Ondo State. Another reason is age. When you look at Agboola Ajayi, he is 51, while his running mate is about 48. They are energetic, resourceful and professionals. In particular, majority of people in Ondo State are saying that they want a grass root politician who has gone through the ranks, so to speak. When you look at the profile of Ajayi, he started as Secretary to a political party in his ward. Later he became Supervisory Councillor and later caretaker chairman. At a stage, he was chairman of his party, later he became elected chairman of council in 2004. In 2007, he went to House of Representative and in 2016, he was elected Deputy Governor. In all these positions, he has been impactful. If you have not been in such position before it will be difficult to know whether you are tested and maybe you can be trusted. So, Ajayi has been tested and trusted. People have absolute trust in him.

With ZLP being a new party, do you think Ajayi has what it takes to confront Akeredolu and Jegede at the polls and make an impact in the election?

Akeredolu is a nice man, but he is not a politician. He is particularly unfriendly with the people. He’s a brilliant lawyer, but he’s not people-oriented. He does not have grass root interest and grip. He looks down on people. Once you are not a lawyer like him, he thinks you are useless. He’s not humble, abuses his colleagues, traditional rulers and our father in the Lord. So, the people are apprehensive. He was given the first four years because he was never tested in any public position. He just came and served under the military. So, he has that military orientation and mentality that once you are in a place of authority nobody should challenge you. More than 70 per cent of his cabinet members are not supporting him. In fact, those who are still moving around with him now are working with us. He has been rejected by the people. The people want somebody that is humble and humane just like Agboola Ajayi.

The candidate of the PDP too, Eyitayo Jegede, luckily, we were in the same cabinet for eight years. He’s simple, but again he’s arrogant. We know he is unfriendly and he does not have any respect for politicians. He hates the political class, there are so many examples. Just to give to you a few, when he was to select his running mate, PDP leaders presented six names to him from Ilaje and he told them there is no problem. He went ahead to pick the person he had in mind from the beginning. Someone who has not won election, who still needs help and is not listening to the voice of reasoning, advice of the elders. There might not be any difference between Jegede and Akeredolu. In Ondo State, we don’t want to make another mistake for another four years by electing somebody that will not listen to the people.

What is your take on zoning as many are advocating a shift of power to the South where your candidate hails from?

We believe in Ondo State that the issue of governorship should be rotational. We don’t feel that a zone should be cheated. When we started in 1999, naturally the thing went to the Northern Senatorial District with Baba Adefarati becoming the governor. I served under him. For his second term bid Baba did well, but people were saying he was old at above 70. So, Baba Adefarati spent four years. Agagu from the South won the election but he also spent four years because people were not too happy with him because they said he was not relating as expected. He contested and he lost to Olusegun Mimiko who is from Central. So, it was north, south and central. After Mimiko spent eight years, he wanted it to remain at the central, but the people rejected the move. They said it’s the turn of north because Baba Adefarati spent only four years. So, the north should be allowed to spend four years to complete their eight years. So, that was why Akeredolu won. So, Akeredolu’s four years plus Baba Adefarati’s four years is eight years. So, we have satisfied the north. Mimiko spent eight years, we have satisfied the central. The south was cheated, they didn’t allow Agagu to finish eight years. People are now saying it is the turn of the south. After south now, it will come to the central senatorial district. Ondo people naturally are saying it is the turn of the south. What are the evidences? In PDP, seven aspirants came out from the south because they knew it was their turn. One person came out from the central and from the north. And they said Jegede won the election, so to reconcile the seven people that contested with him is still a problem till today.  Majority of people that contested with Jegede are working against him. There is no single person that contested with Jegede that his visibly with him today because they know it’s not yet his turn. He can wait maybe after the south.

In APC, about six aspirants came out from the south, but none of them got the ticket. The electorate will teach both the APC and PDP a good lesson on October 10. The mistake will surely be corrected. That’s why when Ajayi came out through ZLP, the people of the south were very happy because they know that this is an opportunity for them to correct the mistakes earlier made by PDP and APC. They know that it’s the turn of the south to produce the next governor in the state and they are working towards that. One of the important reasons that Ajayi will win this election is that former governor of the state, Olusegun Mimiko, who is the first governor to spend eight years as governor in this state and had so many legacies. Even when the incumbent governor came, he acknowledged his performances and his legacies. But Akeredolu could not sustain some of those legacies.

In health, the Mother and Child Hospital were pregnancy was no longer a death sentence, Akeredolu cancelled it. During Mimiko’s time, from antenatal to delivery, it’s free. People were no more dying. That’s why the mantra was that pregnancy will never be a death sentence in Ondo State. Today, pregnancy has come back as a death sentence. People now pay at Mother and Child hospitals and the facilities are no longer maintained. Caesarian section and blood transfusion which used to be free now require a huge amount of money. A relation of mine went to Mother and Child and she was forced to pay N239, 000. It pained me because as a doctor I know what we did there.

Another major thing is the bus shuttle which was the brain child of Mimiko, which has so many advantages. You don’t have to be a pupil of mega school before you can access the bus. It was an avenue for children from various backgrounds to mix and relate together. It was a sort of democratised education in the state. The mega schools built by Mimiko were free, the facilities in the mega schools were much better that those of many of the private schools, they were equipped with ICT, e-library, sick bay among others.

Our women are not happy. They don’t have good relationship with the wife of the governor, maybe for cultural reasons. The wife of the governor is an Igbo person. The allegation is that the first lady prefers women from her tribe. Our women cannot enter Government House like before. This is one of the reasons women are clamouring for Ajayi whose wife is a Princess of Ilaje in Ondo State. If you look at the other contestants, their wives are not from the state. It is good to have people from other tribes into position, but not too many as we have now in the state.

What’s your view on the spate of violence in the state ahead of the election?

I must tell you it is growing to be embarrassing and I don’t think we have ever experienced violence like since 1999. Though it happened a bit during Agagu administration, we were told it was because of many of his aides then. But this time round it is the governor that is encouraging violence and this is disappointing. Three people have been killed by alleged APC thugs and I don’t think this is good for his image. The international communities have even been campaigning against election violence and if this does not stop I am afraid it may have serious consequences on his image after losing this election because he’s going to lose this election. He may find it very difficult to come back to Ondo.

We want to appeal to the Commissioner of Police in the state that he should not support the government of the day against securing the lives and property of people of the state. He is not here to secure the lives of people in government alone and I want to tell him he cannot be there forever. Imagine a boy was killed in Idanre because he was wearing ZLP cap. We wrote a petition to the police only for the Commissioner of Police to be claiming he did not see the petition. I am sure with God, those behind the killing will be exposed. We want to call on our traditional rulers to call Akeredolu to order and tell him to stop this unnecessary violence. Look at what happened at the PDP campaign in Ipele where they destroyed more than 20 vehicles and injured many people.  This did becoming too much.

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