Ekiti APC has no validly nominated guber candidate, Bamidele insists

Representative of Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday, said the seven aggrieved All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirants have insisted that the party has no validly elected candidate for the June 18, 2022 governorship election.

Bamidele said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had envisaged the situation in Ekiti APC and gave two weeks for substitution, urging the leadership of the party to right the wrong.

He spoke in company of another aspirant and House of Representatives member, Femi Bamisile, while addressing his campaign team in the 16 councils of the state, who converged on his office in Ado Ekiti to reject the outcome of the primary that produced Biodun Oyebanji as the party’s standard bearer.

They, however, said they would not defect from the party, but would stay and teach the APC some lessons if their grievances were ignored.

They added that the alleged breach of party’s constitution perpetrated by the Governor Abubakar Badaru-led committee would be addressed politically and legally to ensure that their grievances were resolved.

Bamidele, who said the conduct of the primary proved his knowledge of Kayode Fayemi wrong, added: “The Fayemi I thought I knew will not allow anything other than a transparent primary.

“Anywhere I went before the primary and they asked me if the primary would be free and fair, I always assured them that with Fayemi, the primary will be transparent.”

But posterity will judge whether I was right or wrong.”

On whether the seven aggrieved aspirants that had formed the G7 would defect from APC, Bamidele said: “None of us is contemplating defection from APC. It is our party. We have contributed so much to its development from the days of Alliance for Democracy (AD).

“All we ask for is justice. We are waiting for the national leadership to take the right steps and this must start by substituting the name forwarded to INEC and use the two weeks window available as contained in the Electoral Act to do the right thing in this matter.”

“The name that they have submitted to INEC in Abuja is a dummy name, so those celebrating should do that in moderation. If they think that we will leave the party, they are making a mistake. We are still waiting for the national leadership on our position.

“We have filed petitions and if they endorse the impunity they called primary, it will be clear that we have exhausted all internal mechanisms for crisis resolution and we can return to court from there.”