2023: I align with Southern Governors Forum on Southern President – Mimiko

Immediate past governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko has denied any pact with any presidential aspirant under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be a running mate ahead of 2023 presidential election.

Mimiko in a statement by his Media Assistant, Mr Johnpaul Akinduro said he never met any of the presidential aspirants in order to deputise them in the next year’s general elections.

Pointedly, Mimiko said he aligned with the decision of the 17 Southern governors on the need for the zone to produce the next president after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari next year.

There was a report in a national daily that Mimiko was being considered as running mate to Aminu Tambuwal having dumped Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State because of the rumoured presidential aspiration of former President Goodluck Jonathan who is from the same zone with the governor.

But on Tuesday, Mimiko, in a statement, denied any meeting to discuss a phantom vice-presidential ambition and some other false permutations as reported in the media.

Mimiko said the permutations are all false and do not represent his interest and position on the political reality of the PDP as Nigeria coasts home to the 2023 election.

According to him, no such meeting was held and so no such a proposal could have been considered.

It said: “Dr Mimiko is aligned with the aspiration of the people of Southern Nigeria as exemplified by the call of the Southern governors for a Southern president in the next dispensation and he has not in all his deliberations within Afenifere muted any idea of seeking their support for a VP ambition.”