Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko

Dr. Rahman Olusegun Mimiko, who served two terms as Governor of Ondo State (2009-2017) under the Labour Party before defecting to the PDP, and who earlier served as Federal Minister of Housing and Urban Development (2003-2005, later reappointed briefly in 2005-2007 under President Olusegun Obasanjo), has faced a cluster of corruption allegations stretching across his post-gubernatorial years. While no formal EFCC arraignment of Mimiko personally has been confirmed in credible reporting to date, multiple investigations and petitions have circled his administration. In August 2015, his estranged deputy Ali Olanusi formally petitioned the EFCC with a dossier of allegations against the Mimiko administration, including: (1) alleged falsification of a state House of Assembly resolution authorising the borrowing of N2.4 billion for the Wealth Creation Agency (WECA); (2) diversion of funds meant for the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) Residency Card Project; (3) manipulation of a N27 billion bond and diversion of its proceeds allegedly without SEC approval; and (4) falsification of Assembly records relating to Olanusi's own impeachment. The OSOPADEC commission's chairman Debo Ajimuda was arrested by EFCC over an alleged N61.63bn fraud, with the 2009-2010 Ondo Auditor-General reports cited as evidence of looting under Mimiko's watch. Following Mimiko's February 24, 2017 handover to APC successor Rotimi Akeredolu, the incoming government alleged that Mimiko bequeathed a N220 billion debt and only N9 billion cash. A Guardian Nigeria/Vanguard-reported probe later exposed a N4.3 billion secret account stashed for roughly 10 years (originating under Olusegun Agagu and reportedly active through Mimiko's tenure) discovered by Akeredolu's Commissioner for Finance Wale Akinterinwa - prompting Ondo State House of Assembly hearings in May 2020. Separately, in August 2017 the EFCC grilled Ondo PDP chairman Clement Faboyede in connection with N1 billion in 2015 presidential campaign cash allegedly routed from the Office of the National Security Adviser (Sambo Dasuki) - with SaharaReporters and Premium Times reporting that Mimiko personally collected the funds from the NSA and had Faboyede sign for them before disbursement, placing the former governor squarely inside the 'Dasukigate' web of arms-fund recipients. A separate ZENON Petroleum/Akwa Ibom angle linked to his 2003-2005 Housing Ministry tenure (Femi Otedola's Zenon was established in 2003) has been raised but is NOT corroborated in credible reporting - Zenon's major federal property dealings (e.g. the N2.3bn Stallion House purchase) occurred in 2007, after Mimiko had left the Housing Ministry. Mimiko has consistently denied wrongdoing, with his camp dismissing allegations as politically motivated; his brother and spokesperson Abbas Mimiko described related accusations as 'baseless'. In May 2026, Mimiko formally defected to the APC, a move critics argue is driven by exposure to lingering probes. No conviction has been recorded.