All is not well within the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) as the member representing Ekiti Central Federal Constituency I in the House of Representatives, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, has refused to bow to pressure from the party leaders not to contest the governorship seat in Ekiti State in 2014.
Addressing newsmen on Saturday in Ado-Ekiti, Bamidele said the national leader of the ACN, Senator Bola Tinubu, cannot bar him from contesting the 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State, saying “the Tinubu that I know will not take any step that will undermine democracy, so what was reported was not what Tinubu said. Tinubu that I know will want Ekiti people to take their own decision and not impose on them.”
Bamidele also announced that he had shelved the celebration of his 50th birthday on July 29 “in honour of Ekiti people that are still languishing in poverty and I cannot be celebrating birthday in the midst of poverty.”
The Ado Ekiti/Irepodun/Ifelodun constituency representative in the National Assembly, who addressed his supporters at his new situation office in Ado Ekiti on the platform of his Ekiti Bibiire Coalition, insisted that nobody, including Tinubu could stop him from contesting against Governor Kayode Fayemi in 2014, saying he was unperturbed by the endorsement of Fayemi by the leaders of the ACN.
According to him, “It is only God that crowns the king,” pointing out that he could not drop his political ambition on the premise of mere command from anybody.
Bamidele, a former two-time commissioner, etc. in Lagos State, was reacting to the endorsement of Governor Kayode Fayemi by Senator Tinubu, the national chairman of the ACN, Chief Bisi Akande and other leaders of the party who were in Ado Ekiti, the state capital recently.
Speaking on the peace parley championed by Tinubu and Akande, where Fayemi was endorsed, Bamidele, said “I was invited for the meeting but I got the text message late. But my argument still remains that Tinubu did not endorse Fayemi at the meeting.”
He said: “Nobody can stop me from contesting the Governorship election. I cannot fight with Tinubu just like it is not compulsory that we should agree on everything at all times.
“I will always respect my benefactor and Senator Tinubu is my benefactor whom I respect so well. But Ekiti is first on my agenda. But Tinubu that I know want the best for Ekiti. If I could work for him for eleven and half years to make Lagos State a model, then I know he will want somebody like me to work with the people to make Ekiti a model.”
The Federal Lawmaker did not mention the political party under which he would advance his political ambition, saying the platform will be known soon.
He, however, said he has enormous respect for the ACN leader, under whom he served as Special Adviser in Lagos State, revealing that he is not contesting the coming governorship election out of his own personal conviction, but based on the requests of Ekiti people.
The Federal Lawmaker stated that he would not be desperate in his bid to become the governor of the State by carrying lethal weapons to haunt his political opponents in the name of politics.
Bamidele asked his people “Were you not the one that called me to come and contest? his people answered that “We were the one”, appealing to his teeming supporters to be civil in their approach in the face of provocation.
He urged Fayemi to stop dropping Tinubu’s names to campaign in the state, saying he should be man enough to carry his own political cross.
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