Yesterday, the Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District of Ekiti State and a governorship aspirant in the just concluded All Progressives Congress, APC primary election, Opeyemi Bamidele, has disclosed that he would not challenge the victory of the party’s candidate, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, in court, for the sake of unity and cohesion in the APC.
Bamidele explained that his decision not to drag the party to court does not in any way validate the primary as free and fair, saying he still harboured resentment against the January 27 primary, which he described as a flagrant aberrasion of democracy ethos. He restated that he would not seek redress in court or defect from APC, despite the electoral malfeasance that dogged the poll.
Bamidele, had shortly after the primary threatened to challenge the primary that produced former Secretary to the State Government as a candidate in a controversial fashion, alleging that it was brazenly skewed and manipulated by Governor Abubakar Badaru-led APC committee.
But in a statement he personally signed yesterday, February, 10, 2022 and made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti, Bamidele said he recanted on his earlier position after critical stakeholders had intervened and appealed to him to sheathe his sword.
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.
According to him, “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 that both my supporters and I will not defect from APC. Details of the reasons which informed these choices will be communicated at a later date when my supporters and I address 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 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. That is the new reality that those in control, including our national leadership must accept”.
Source: Vanguard