Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure and Fred Itua, Abuja

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the October 10 governorship election in Ondo, Eyitayo Jegede, has sought for the support of the state former governor, Olusegun Mimiko, for the realisation of his ambition.

Jegede had, on Monday, met with Mimiko at his Ondo country home, where issues relating to the forthcoming governorship election were reportedly discussed.

The governorship candidate, who served as commissioner for Justice and Attorney General during Mimiko’s eight years administration, was said to have visited his former boss with two of his loyalists who are also close to Mimiko.

Mikioo had, in 2016, endorsed Jegede as the PDP governorship candidate and worked for him despite opposition by billionaire business man, Jimoh Ibrahim, who was also a PDP aspirant.

It took the intervention of Mimiko for Jegede to emerge PDP candidate, as Ibrahim had dragged the party to court.

However, Jegede refused to seek Mimiko’s blessing until recently, despite appeal by his supporters and friends.

It was gathered that the PDP candidate did not visit Mimiko before the governorship primary while other aspirants visited and asked for his blessing.

Already, Mimiko and his party, the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), were said to have settled for the Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi, as their preferred candidate.

Meanwhile, PDP National Working Committee (NWC)  and other party leaders have been urged to support the party’s candidate in the October 10 poll.

While reacting to the inability of Ajayi to clinch PDP ticket in the July 22 governorship primary and his rumoured defection to ZLP,  members of Vanguard for Justice and Fairness (VJF) in PDP, cautioned members of the party national working committee and other heavy weights to desist from any act that can work against the overall interest of the party.

In a statement, the VJF President, Abubakar Abagi, said the group is worried over the growing disaffection, particularly among the top leadership of the PDP over anti-party activities by ranking officials of the party and leaders following the victory of Jegede at the primary.

“It has come to our knowledge that some top party leaders are not happy over the victory of Jegede over Ajayi’s loss at the PDP governorship primary and are beginning to show tacit support for Ajayi to leave the party and withdrawing their support for Jegede who clearly won in a transparent process.

“We are fully aware that Jegede is seen by these leaders as being a follower of the political ideology championed by the former vice president and PDP candidate in the 2019 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar.

“However, Jegede still remains the choice of the people of Ondo and the entire PDP followers in the state and that should be respected.

“We cannot to go into the election with a divided house as APC members in the state are on a daily basis uniting and closing ranks while we are busy with anti-party activities that may ruin our chances of kicking Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and his All Progressives Party (APC) out of power and free people of Ondo State from the grip of poor governance,” he said.