Ekiti 2022: Bamidele Backtracks On Threat To Challenge APC Guber Primary

A governorship aspirant of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the just concluded governorship primary, Senator Opeyemi has toned down his threats to challenge the results of the shadow poll that produced Mr. Biodun Oyebanji as the party’s candidate.

Also, a frontline governorship aspirant in the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primaries, Hon. Femi Bamisile has dropped his agitations over the January 27 shadow poll.

Bamidele said that although he still harbors resentment against the exercise, his decision not to challenge the candidacy of Oyebanji was informed on the need to sustain unity and cohesion in the state chapter.

Bamidele who alongside seven aspirants boycotted the exercise had shortly after the primaries threatened to challenge in Court the exercise that produced the ex -Secretary to the Government, alleging it was brazenly manipulated by Governor Abubakar Badaru-led APC committee.

But, in a statement entitled ‘Ekiti 2022 Governorship Primaries and My Stand,’ Bamidele said that he backtracked on his threats after critical stakeholders had intervened and begged him to sheathe his proverbial sword in the interest of the party.

Bamidele maintained that he was ruffled by the alleged abysmal turn the shadow poll went and the betrayal of confidence therein, but said his action didn’t connote that he had abandoned the struggle to right the wrongs and make the party truly democratic.

“Yet, in spite of my strong convictions as expressed above, I have come to some irreversible conclusions and these are the messages I need to pass on to all and sundry today as I temporarily break my silence on the way forward. One is to say that I have chosen to drop the option of going to court to sue the party.

“The other is to make it crystal clear to everyone and my supporters that I will not defect from APC. Details of the reasons which informed these choices will be communicated at a later date when my supporters, Ekiti people, and Nigerians at large. It is not just about me.

“It is about the unity and progress of Ekiti State and her politically undermined and economically afflicted people. It is also about ensuring that the ground is not prepared for reactionary beneficiaries to take advantage of the seeming lack of capacity to manage our affairs as a ruling party in the State.

“I also must coordinate and lead my own aspect of this popular struggle in a way to ensure that my supporters and stakeholders who had been isolated from the mainstream of the party become relevant again, for anything short of that can only be a highway to nowhere.

“We have all contributed so much to building this party in Ekiti State and the management, as well as its decision-making process, cannot be an exclusive preserve of a few.

“That is the new reality that those in control, including our national leadership, must accept or it becomes a popular subject matter of a struggle around which a popular movement must be built. This is where I stand,” he added.

In the same vein, another governorship aspirant in the just concluded APC governorship primaries, Hon. Femi Bamisile has dropped his agitations over the January 27 shadow poll.

Bamisile said that he resolved to support the candidature of the former Secretary to the Ekiti State Government, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, the winner of the primaries in the overall interest of the party.

The Federal lawmaker representing Ekiti East/ Gbonyin/ Emure alongside seven aggrieved aspirants had vowed to contest the processes of the shadow poll, citing alleged irregularities and manipulation in favour of Oyebanji, who is believed to be the preferred choice of Governor Kayode Fayemi.

But, Bamisile while addressing newsmen on Friday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, said his decision to support the dictates of the APC on the shadow poll was to avert the electoral misfortune that befell the party in Zamfara State.

He dismissed as untrue and puerile the insinuations that he backtracked on his earlier stance because he was offered a return ticket, saying that his action was primarily informed by the need to sustain the unity of the party.

“What I have just said today is that I am standing with the party. Whatever the party wants us to do, we will do. I can’t destroy the party I joined others to build and I have a penchant for building political parties.

“I still maintain my stand; it really was not an election. It was a process that has become acceptable to some of us because we are party men. But it was not an election.”

The lawmaker, who said he had dropped the option to challenge the election in court in the interest of moving APC forward, said, “We are not going to leave the party. I can’t be sent out of a house that I built. Nobody can send me out of APC.

“I was the first person to make it bold that I will fight it beyond all reckoning and part of that was to actually go to court. I have spoken to Lateef Fagbemi and Yussuf Alli on this, but looking at the larger picture, would I want Ekiti to go the way of Zamfara? No.”

Bamisile, who said the rooms for the Zamfara treatment were there for the party with litigation, said, “But all these things could be resolved, so I need not wait for the reconciliation team of the party. I think for me, I need to reconcile with myself. What I have just said is that I am standing with the party. Whatever the party wants us to do, we will do.”

He urged all his supporters across the 177 wards in the state to remain calm and support the candidate of the party in the forthcoming election, saying “there is still a lot ahead of us.”