Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, and billionaire politician, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, at the Akure Airport on Wednesday appeared to have left sour grapes in the mouths of the two political gladiators.
The chance meeting of Mimiko and Ibrahim at the airport almost degenerated to a physical confrontation as an attempt to exchange pleasantries between the two was said to have resulted in some altercations.
The Ondo State Government in a statement on Wednesday by the Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kolawole Olabisi, said the businessman claimed that he was going to “burn down the state with the governor” and ensure that the state “becomes ungovernable.”
Olabisi said Ibrahim “pointed angrily at the governor” as Mimiko moved towards to 10-man delegation of the Chief Executive Officer of Global Fleet at the airport to express his sympathy on the kidnap of Ibrahim’s mother in Ondo State last week.
Ibrahim, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State, in a statement in Lagos on Wednesday however, described the claims of the governor as a “shameful disgrace.”
He explained that Mimiko courted trouble by “visiting a private jet (Ibrahim’s jet) at the airport without being invited,” a development, he contended, was a “security risk.”
On sighting the businessman’s delegation at the airport, Olabisi said, “Governor Mimiko promptly moved to the group and exchanged pleasantries with them but Mr. Ibrahim distanced himself... he pointed angrily in his face and bellowed, ‘Look, am not interested in your greetings.
“I will ensure that we burn Ondo State down and burn you with it. I will deal with you and your bunch of rabble rousers’.”
The CPS said the case had called on the “Presidency to take note of the statements made by Mr. Ibrahim” in case of any violence in the coming elections.”
He added, “We want to warn that the era of gun point democracy is gone; the people of the State are no animals to be captured and caged at will. The Police and other security agencies should take judicial note of Mr Jimoh Ibrahim’s vow of violence and be on the lookout.”
Ibrahim, in the statement said, said, “He (Mimiko) said he had made unsuccessful calls to my phone and bowed to apologise to me over my mother’s kidnap. I asked him if he was the kidnapper. In the process, he tried to greet other people around me, but they refused to answer him.
“Thereafter, we departed for Lagos and Mimiko issued a press statement with all sorts of lies.”
The billionaire believed he reserved the right to chose whom to greet saying, “Mimiko may burn the state on his own and put anybody’s name on it, but to us, that is not an issue.
“Whatever he sowed, he shall reap. I am not currently contesting any election in the state and it is my right to choose whom I greet and who to take greetings from.”
He added, “Mimiko visiting a private aircraft without invitation, when he is not an airport official, is a security risk and amounts to conduct unbecoming of a governor.”
The Punch Newspaper.
PS: That is an insult on the part of the billionaire to Ondo State Gov.
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