A reporter who attended the interaction told SaharaReporters that the governor stated that Mr. Jega would still remain at the head of the electoral commission and preside over next
month’s general elections, noting that the Presidency had made the same point.
Apparently rattled by widespread media reports, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on Sunday evening denied tipping his younger brother, Nazim Femi Mimiko, a professor,
for the chairmanship of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking at a media event at the old banquet hall of the Government House in Akure, the state capital, Mr. Mimiko said reports that he was pushing for his brother, who was the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA), to replace current INEC chair Attahiru Jega were mere “rumor.”
There had been several reports that Mr. Nazim Femi Mimiko was being groomed to take over the INEC top post from Mr. Jega whose tenure is due to expire by the end of June, 2015.
A reporter who attended the interaction told SaharaReporters that the governor stated that Mr. Jega would still remain at the head of the electoral commission and preside over next
month’s general elections, noting that the Presidency had made the same point.
“I don’t know where the propaganda came from about Professor Femi Mimiko, but I think I am in a position to know that nothing can be further from the truth,” said Governor Mimiko. He claimed that his brother was never approached.
Governor Mimiko added, “The President has said he had no intention to remove Professor Jega. So, I don’t know where the rumor emanated and what purpose it was supposed to serve, but I know there is no truth whatsoever in the rumor.”
But Mr. Mimiko’s denials did not impress all. Human rights lawyer Adeniyi Ogundare reacted with skepticism. “I can’t be moved by [Governor Mimiko’s] denial on tipping his younger brother whom he made the vice chancellor of the state-owned university now for the INEC chair’s job,” said the lawyer. He added: “We are watching with keen interest, but we won’t keep mute.” A source who attended the media event disclosed that Eniola Akinsola, the chief press secretary to Governor Mimiko, also berated some reporters whose papers he accused of functioning as the “opposition party’s paper.”
He urged the reporters to act professionally, telling them that it was unfortunate that some of them write negative reports against the state government. SaharaReporters had revealed that Dr. Mimiko had become one of the arrowheads of hawks within President Jonathan's kitchen cabinet who are notoriously bent on scuttling 2015 general elections in Nigeria.