Former chairman of the board of Ondo State Radio – vision Corporation , Dr . Kayode Ajulo, on Sunday attributed the defeat of Mr . Eyitayo Jegede in Saturday ’ s governorship election to the faceoff between him and former Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
Jegede, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the election, served as a two – term attorney general and commissioner for Justice when Mimiko was governor for eight years .
The relationship between the two of them went sour when Mimiko anointed Jegede as his successor in 2016 but allegedly refused to back it up with funds , which led to his defeat .
Jegede also emerged as the candidate of the PDP in the 2020 governorship election but Mimiko, who has since dumped the party to form the Zenith Labour Party , pitched his tent with the incumbent Deputy Governor , Agboola Ajayi, who contested on the platform of the ZLP .
Reacting to the outcome of the result in a statement on Sunday , Ajulo , who is an Abuja- based lawyer , said Jegede would have won if he had made peace with Mimiko to earn his support.
He said Governor Rotimi Akeredolu , who won the election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress , defeated other contestants because he made peace with the aggrieved members of his party before the election.
He said , “ The Peoples Democratic Party would have had a better shot at winning if the party ’ s candidate had emulated the tactic of the APC’ s candidate who stooped to conquer by making peace with all his old and new adversaries .
“ I am disturbed that the PDP candidate failed to be on the same page with his former principal, Dr . Olusegun Mimiko.
“ This ( development) unfortunately, helped Akeredolu , SAN fortunes as PDP went into the election with a cracked wall .
” Where are all state governors and national party leaders of the party ? They even tried to beat up Ayodele Fayose during one of the campaign rallies . ”
