Barring the unforeseen, Deputy Governor of Ondo State and governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party((ZLP) in the October 10 governorship election in the state , Agboola Ajayi will resign from office this week, Daily Independent has gathered.
Coming on the heels of this development is the eruption of a crisis of confidence between the national leader of the ZLP and former Governor of Ondo State, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko and Ajayi over election funds.
The move our correspondent gathered is to preempt his impeachment from office by the House of Assembly.
Ajayi had dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to join the opposition PDP in a bid for the party’s ticket but was defeated by Eyitayo Jegede.
Ajayi thereafter, defected to the ZLP where he was adopted as governorship candidate for the October 10 election. He came a distant third in the election won by the Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu with Jegede as first runner up.
A close associate of the former governor who was deep in the Ajayi for Governor project confided in a team of editors on Sunday evening that the idea of resignation was mulled by close friends of the embattled deputy governor, including a northern Governor.
“From all we have seen, the game has ended and there is no way anyone can continue the fight; we have reached the end of the road as far as this governorship issue is concerned.
“We have had a review of the circumstances of our performance and honestly, our conclusion was that we undermined Akeredolu and overrated our candidate’s capacity to raise funds and mobilise resources for the battle.
“The most worrisome was not just the result from the South, but his own local government where he was roundly embarrassed.
“Prior to the election, we were assured by our candidate and even our national leader, that is Mimiko was confident based on the assurances from Agboola Ajayi that there were more than enough resources for the battle.
“But we became very uncomfortable when on Wednesday, our candidate began to develop clay foot upon enquiries from Mimiko to raise some funds for the immediate days predeeding the election.
“From all indications, Mimiko is unhappy because he was deceived into the project to fight his long time friend and you know the imppications of such a risk.
“Those of us who are close to deputy have advised him to honourably resign before he is disgraced because we foresee a forceful removal and you guys know how brutal Akeredolu can be when he fights. The man may no longer enjoy any public sympathy.
“We reached out to some of the deputy Governor’s friends, including one of his northern Governor friend and persons of goodwill have advised him accordingly that he should resign.
“By the Grace of God , he may turn in his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the State House of Assembly before the end of this week, and this is authoritative.
”We wanted to play a card and prove the point with his presence as a sitting deputy governor running against the Governor and defeating him but all that is of no effect any longer so there is no point heating up the polity.
Source: Independent.