••Says No Agreement With Olusola Oke
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim has declared his ambition to contest for the governorship ticket of All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the November 16, 2024 gubernatorial election in Ondo State.
Briefing journalists in Akure, the state capital, the senator representing Ondo Southern Senatorial District said he’s determined to bring to bear his nine degrees in managing the economy of the state.
He revealed that his programmes are hinged on creating moral efficiency, moral knowledge and human capacity building.
According to Ibrahim, “I’m declaring my intention to run for the governorship election of Ondo State. Among the contestants, I am the oldest. I have contested election twice in my life time, one of which I contested for governorship position during Ade Adefarati in 2003, and non of these contestants was on that ballot.
“Beyond that, I contested for Senate, I won the six local government areas, and APC had never won the election for the Senate not until I contested.
We have a strategy which we call; ‘Aseyori, breakthrough’, we used this strategy to run the primaries for the senatorial election and clocked 193 votes out of 300, over 70 per cent of the votes. I won very convincingly.
So second time, the last election, I was just an aspirant trying to run under the PDP, but Jegede got the ticket. But I am here again to contest for the governorship election.
“My programmes are very straightforward, we are to create moral efficiency and moral knowledge and making the body more efficient.
“We must also map Ondo State borders for security networks and then to ensure that we will never have any cases of kidnapping, by making Amotekun Corps a classic unique security outfit that will come with good strategy to challenge any security issues in our state.”
“So, one of the areas we are looking at is to ensure that everybody in Ondo State can go to sleep with their eyes closed and that’s topmost of our priority. Mapping every systems, the tactical operations of Amotekun have to come more distinct into technology. I want an Amotekun that is IT-informed because I have PhD in War.”
“So we need to do more of IT, our government will ensure that Amotekun is IT-compliant through strategy and renovation and is going to be well funded to ensure that people of Ondo State can go and sleep.”
“We are going to face infrastructural development by making sure that we create employment through that. So, we should expect the bitumen act that I’m moving at the Senate, which is now at the third reading to be more prominent and classic in engagement.”
Reacting to the rumour making the round that he reneged on an agreement he struck with another APC chieftain, Olusola Oke in 2023 that he(Ibrahim) would not vie for the party’s governorship ticket, Senator Ibrahim dismissed the claim as spurious and nonexistent.
He said: “Me and Olusola Oke didn’t have any agreement about any election, whether I will run for governorship or not. And I have already had my strategy to win my election without anybody.”
“I even sent text message to him about this and he replied me that “My brother, the past is gone and you know how things went. So, if I’m contesting in 2023 now, it is my constitutional rights to do so and if I didn’t do so, it is my constitutional right again to support the right candidate of my choice.”
The senator further explained that “Oke is my brother and I don’t run any aspirant or candidate down. I only face the programmes that I want to do. So, I have already completed my research programme in Cambridge on how to win election. And the research signal for me to be that is that ‘you don’t run until the last minutes.’ So, I used my money to fund my strategy to win the Senate election and I wasn’t taken to any court.
“Maybe the death of Aketi has enhanced my chances because Aketi is a human being, he can be subjectively objective at the last minute. But now that he is no more, that possibility is written off completely. So whoever wants to run for governor will meet me on the field.”
“So Aketi’s death doesn’t affect my chances at all, but it would enhance my chances to win the governorship position of this state. So, we are working seriously to win this election. And the President will never say that we should go and work for the incumbent governor. He can only appeal that maybe he prefers one person if you can prefer him and if you cannot go and do your election. So the President cannot say that I have taken this person, so all of you should go and sit down.”
•INDEPENDENTNG.