Ondo constituents move to recall Rep

Apparently influenced by the on-going recall process against Senator Dino Melaye by some of his Kogi West constituents, youths of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency of Ondo State, have started to educate other voters on the need to terminate the representation of Bamidele Baderinwa at the House of Representatives.

The action of the youths is however against the position of their leadership which insisted that the representative had given quality representation and does not deserve to be recalled.

Leader of the youths in Ifedore, Adewale Adekunle, who spoke with The Guardian, said no action of recalling any lawmaker was taking place in the Federal Constituency.Adekunle stressed that those calling for the recall of the lawmaker belong to a faceless group, noting that the people of the constituency were satisfied with the achievements of Baderinwa and there was no reason for his recall.

But the aggrieved youths, under the auspices of Idanre/Ifedore Youth Coalition, noted that they have been consulting the voters in the constituency to educate them on the need to sack the lawmaker.

The Guardian gathered that the youths have urged registered voters to bring their voters cards and gather at two venues in Idanre and Ifedore Local Government Areas of the state at a date that would be announced soon. According to a source in the area, the voters in Idanre would gather at Owena, while those from Ifedore would converge at Igbara-Oke for the exercise.

Coordinator of the group, Adeyemi Alabi, who spoke with journalists in Akure yesterday, said the youths of the constituency were determined to lead the struggle as he accused Baderinwa of poor representation at the lower chamber and utter abandonment of the two councils that constitute the constituency.

Alabi explained that over 30 youths have been stationed at all the wards in the two councils to sensitize the people on the need to participate in the exercise.Stressing that a house-to-house sensitization had begun since last week, as the people were ready to remove the lawmaker, he said, “As you can see, we are set for the process of recalling our representative at the Federal House of Representatives, Baderinwa Bamidele must be recalled.

“This is democracy at work and we are happy that we are taking solace in the beauty of democracy: we have lost confidence in Baderinwa, so he must go. He has performed woefully, compared to the likes of Afe Olowokere in Akure and the rest. Bamidele has not impacted positively in the lives of the people of our constituency.”

He implored credible voters in the area to come out in large numbers for the recall process, warning that only credible voters with valid voter cards would be allowed to participate in the exercise.

However, the branch of the party in Ifedore has described the statement credited to Adewale, who had earlier denied the recall attempt, as laughable. In a statement signed by the Organising Secretary, Akinloye Bolarinde, the party said Adewale’s reaction came as a shock to the party because he had decamped to the Alliance for Democracy (AD).

According to him, “Adewale is a card carrying member of AD. He was an AD polling agent in his Ikota unit in the last gubernatorial election. We the LG executives of APC later replaced him with Mogaji Ezekiel from the same unit after he had defected to AD immediately after the gubernatorial primary.

“He is from Unit 1, idi Aagba in Ikota and he only managed to have 8 votes for AD in the last gubernatorial election where he was an agent.”The party maintained that Adewale’s reaction on the matter and his claims as the youth leader of the party raised suspicion, saying “We will like to state that it is not only criminal but also shocking for a member of the AD to speak for the APC.

“Adewale is the cousin of Baderinwa, but he is not a member of APC, he has since defected to AD before the last gubernatorial election.”The party however expressed sadness over the process of recall saying, “we received with shock the purported recall of Hon. Baderinwa Bamidele. We are not happy over the development.

“But, we will like to state that the youths in Idanre/Ifedore are only romancing with their constitutional right. We will like to appeal to them to please let dialogue prevail. This recall is not a thing of joy to the APC.“But as a political party which believes so much in the rule of law, we can not stop the youths from exercising their constitutional right, we can only appeal to them.”