Former Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko, has disowned a viral social media post attributing controversial remarks about some political figures in the country to him, describing it as false and irresponsible.
OSUN DEFENDER reports that the post, which has gained traction on social media in the last one week, purportedly quoted Mimiko as vilifying the National Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, due to his political feud with his former boss, President Bola Tinubu.
The post also demonised the characters of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, Former Governor Nasir El-Rufai and other leaders of the coalition, for their opposition to the present administration at the federal level.
It reads, “Aregbesola is not opposing Tinubu because of Nigeria but because of his own selfishness and stubbornness after running out of favor.
“Obi is a well known liar, someone who claimed he built schools and Anambra teachers busted into laughter because he was lying.
“He couldn’t pay salaries as a Governor and he wants to wrestle power with Tinubu who started payment of 13th month salary to workers in Nigeria as a Governor of Lagos. Look at Elrufai, the man who started payment of money officially to terrorists.
“Or is it Atiku that said he needed only $10b to develop Nigeria and he will raise the money by selling all national assets, he said this openly on TV. Or Dino who uses all his loots to buy expensive cars? Those are the clowns that want to compete with an Astute Administrator like Bola Tinubu?”
Dissociating himself from the post in a statement on Monday, Mimiko’s former Chief Press Secretary, Eni Akinsola, the former Governor said he had neither met the purported author of the post nor granted any interview on the issues raised.
“Characteristically, we considered moving on and leaving the author to wallow in self-deceit. We know that false posts like that are common with social media users who use click baits, lies and conjectures to draw traffic to their posts and handles,” Akinsola wrote on Facebook.
He added that the clarification became necessary after several well-meaning Nigerians forwarded different versions of the same “concocted pieces of misinformation” to Mimiko’s associates.
“Such a level of incoherence, throwing allegations around and making far from positive contributions to national issues is not Iroko’s style,” Akinsola stressed, referring to the former governor by his political sobriquet.
He urged the public to disregard the post, describing it as “an unfortunate descent into naked falsehood and irresponsible abuse of the right to freedom of speech.”
Sodiq Yusuf is a trained media practitioner and journalist with considerable years of experience in print, broadcast, and digital journalism. His interests cover a wide range of causes in politics, governance, sports, community development, and good governance.
