National Assembly members and former All Progressives Congress governorship aspirants in Ekiti State, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele and Femi Bamisile, on Friday said they would not take the party to court over the January 27 primary of the party.
Bamidele and Bamisile, who said they would not leave the party over their grievances, said they would work in the interest of the APC to ensure victory in the June 18 governorship election.
Seven of the eight former aspirants – Bamidele, Bamisile, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, Bamidele Faparusi, Kayode Ojo, Demola Popoola and Olusola Folabi – had protested the list of local government and ward electoral officers for the primary and called for the suspension of the election.
They had threatened to challenge the declaration of a former Secretary to the State Government, Biodun Oyebanji, as the winner of the primary by the Abubakar Badaru-led APC Electoral Committee.
But Bamidele, in a statement titled, ‘Ekiti 2022 governorship primaries and my stand,’ said, “I still strongly hold the position that it (the primary) was a mockery of democracy that should be condemned by all means.
“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 the 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.”
On his part, Bamisile, a House of Representatives member, while addressing his supporters in ado Ekiti, said, “I still maintain my stand, it really was not an election. It was a process that has become acceptable to some of us because we are party men. But it was not an election.
“We are not going to leave the party. I can’t be sent out of a house that I built. Nobody can send me out of APC.”
Credit: punchng.com
