From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District of Ekiti State and a governorship aspirant in the recently concluded primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Opeyemi Bamidele, has dropped the option to seek redress in court on the outcome of the primary that produced Hon Biodun Oyebanji as the party’s candidate for the June 18 election.
Bamidele revealed his new choice was to ensure unity and progress of the party in the state.
The Senator said though he still harbours resentment against the primary, which he described as a sham, charade and flagrant abrasion of democracy ethos, however, noted that he won’t defect from the APC despite the electoral perfidy that characterised the election.
Bamidele, had shortly after the primary threatened to challenge the outcome employing legal means. He alleged that it was brazenly skewed and manipulated by Governor Abubakar Badaru-led APC committee to favour certain interest.
Bamidele, in a statement he personally signed on Friday, and made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, said he changed his earlier position after critical stakeholders had intervened and appealed to him to sheathe his sword.
He 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 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.
“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”.