Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Edo State has said that his re-election is a done deal, noting that he would retain his position due to his performance.
Speaking on a television programme on Monday, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the October 10 governorship election in the state, said his good works in office would ensure his victory at the election.
He said: “We have done a lot of work that will speak for us.”
The governor also slammed his predecessor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, whom he described as a spent force and a betrayer.
He denied ever being an ally of Mimiko, adding that he would retain his seat without his support.
Mimiko is backing Akeredolu’s estranged deputy, Chief Agboola Ajayi, who is running on the platform of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
“Mimiko is not my ally. I ran against him in 2012. I ran against Jegede in 2015 with Mimiko supporting him. How can you call Mimiko my ally?
“The only thing is that I have treated him fairly. No other governor has treated his predecessors as fairly as I have treated Mimiko. Mimiko has his own traits,” the governor stated.
Akeredolu also condemned the relationship between Ajayi and Mimiko, stating that they are united by the same bad behaviour.
He said: “If Agboola had done what he did and found solace and succour in Mimiko, that is unfortunate. It is because they shared the same traits. People who are prone to betraying others must come together. They have an identical feather. They want to work together. So why are we worrying ourselves about them?
“Mimiko is not a political force anywhere. He left office and wanted to go to the Senate. He did not even win his local government out of six local governments. So, what force is he?
“He is a spent force. He is dead politically and probably he needed some resurrection and some support. If Agboola has some money to waste, they can support him. Mimiko is nobody in the politics of Ondo State today and Agboola cannot resuscitate him.
“Let them do whatever they can do but for them to say I am nervous about forces, they say they are Third Force, third force from what? They don’t exist. They exist in your news medium only.
“I can assure you. We are prepared. This is APC. When we are not in government, Mimiko with Jegede, we defeated them. Why should we be afraid? We won convincingly. We defeated them in 14 local governments out of 18.
“Let me assure the people that are watching us today that we are going to win the entire 18 local governments. We are not boasting. We have worked and people have seen our work and our work will speak for us. We are not a garden of betrayals.
“Mimiko can continue with what he is doing. He worked with Adefarati, he betrayed him; he worked with Agagu, he betrayed him. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we all supported him to become the governor, did he not betray us? And you call him my ally. We have never been in the same political camp.
“He is not my ally. I just brought Agboola from PDP to come and work with us. If he feels he wants to go back home, he has his record. Tell me any person, who had been in three political parties in one month. From APC to PDP and to one party called Z Labour Party. Is that a human being?
“You can see that he is an inconsistent person. Three political parties in one month.”
