After months of speculations, Ondo State Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, thursday defected from the Labour Party (LP) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), effectively returning to the ruling party which he left in the run up to the 2007 general election.

All the members of his state House of Assembly, his cabinet members and two National Assembly members, as well as his supporters, defected with him from the LP to the PDP.

Mimiko’s formal defection took place  at the Presidential Villa in Abuja,  with Vice-President Namadi Sambo presiding.

“I, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, following extensive consultations across the land, today finally announce the decision of members of the National Assembly from the LP in Ondo State, members of the LP in the state, members of the LP in the state House of Assembly, members of the State Executive Council and indeed all those who share our aspirations, to join the PDP,” the governor said.

President of the Senate, David Mark; Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, as well as PDP leaders from the South-west were all present at the event.

Before Mimiko cross-carpeted to the LP on which platform he contested and won the governorship election, he was originally a PDP member.

The governor said he decided  to defect to PDP after wide consultations with all stakeholders, in the interest of the nation and its democratic tenets.

He said the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 was paramount to him.

In his remarks, the Senate President, who expressed delight, said the governor had returned from “self-exile.”

He charged Mimiko to play a pivotal role in the reconciliation going on within the PDP fold.