Labour Party ‘shuts door’ on Mimiko

The Labour Party (LP) has told Olusegun Mimiko, former governor of Ondo state, to steer clear of its affairs.

Olusegun resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday, and the LP where he had defected from, says he should forsake any thought of returning to its fold.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Mike Omotosho, LP national chairman, said the party is not interested in having Mimiko under its umbrella.

“We urge politicians like the former governor of Ondo state to stay clear of the new Labour Party because we are aware of their gimmicks to lure the Labour Party in the direction of other political parties with the hope of rehabilitating their dwindling political relevance,” he said.

Omotosho accused Mimiko of abandoning the party a few days to its national convention in October 2014, saying that “such a treachery and betrayal of a party that gave the former governor succour in the darkest hour of his political career especially as manifest in his two-term victory on the ticket of Labour Party is to say the least, cheap and callous”.

He said the labour movement, in alliance with its civil society partners, is poised to fully reclaim the LP and restore it as a model political institution “that does not only epitomize 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.

“Political journeypersons 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.

“Right now, the Labour Party is pre-occupied with strategic re-positioning aimed at re-energising our capacity for issue-based politics and ideologically driven political contestations.”