Mimiko is a traitor –Tinubu

National leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has described Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko as a betrayer, just as he vowed that ACN would win the forthcoming governorship poll in the state.

Tinubu also said the planned introduction of N5, 000 banknote by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, was an indication of devaluation, stressing that the government had not managed the country’s resources well over the years.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The former Lagos State governor, who was on his way to United States (US) for the Democratic Convention, spoke with some Nigerian journalists at the weekend in London, United Kingdom.

He said: “It is an indication of devaluation. Sanusi is a banker for the entire nation. He keeps eye on the economy and comes up with policies. The problem that we have is that we are spending what we don’t have. We are not managing our resources very well.

“If you are losing over $6bn in oil revenue to theft, if you are losing $6bn to $10bn to subsidy theft, and if you are spending 75 per cent of your budget to service recurrent expenditure and you are borrowing for no long term activities and development that will sustain the nation on the long term, you get devaluation and you are seeing the effect of devaluation. The economy is on reverse, it is a yoyo economy. This government is not serious; they don’t know what they are doing.”

Speaking on his grouse with Governor Mimiko, Tinubu said that before he was declared the winner of the 2007 governorship in 2008 by the Court of Appeal, Mimiko did promise to join the ACN within 30 days of his swearing-in, but rather than fulfilling his promise, he turned his back on the party that fought for his success at the court.

He said: “Mimiko is a betrayer. We are going to defeat him without rigging. He is a betrayer like he has betrayed others in the past. He got into Chief Adebayo Adefarati’s cabinet in 1999, betrayed him and moved to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He later betrayed Olusegun Agagu and came back.

“He promised that within 30 days of his declaration when we were fighting the case in the court, he will come to ACN and after being sworn-in, he started dillydallying. That is his trait. He is not principled; a person with character would not do that, definitely.”

On the opposition of ACN by the Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, and some of the group’s leaders, Tinubu said the leaders had tried vehemently in the past to work against the success of his party, but without success.

He accused them of destroying the Alliance for Democracy (AD) for PDP before forming the Progressive Action Congress (PAC) and later the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA).

“They came under DPA, they failed, they went to bed with Gbenga Daniel in Ogun State, and they failed. They are still going to fail. I don’t see what is Afenifere in that,” he said.

Source: National Mirror.