To meet his ambition of wrestling the governorship seat from Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, a member representing Ado Ekiti and Irepodun/Ifelodun Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Honourable Opeyemi Bamidele has finally defected from the All Progressive Congress (APC) to the Labour Party (LP) after several futile efforts by the leadership of the APC to plead with him.
On Sunday, Bamidele declared at a press conference at Emure Ekiti that he had formally dumped the APC for the Labour Party amid wild jubilation from his supporters.
He said he decided to move over to the Labour Party since the APC had decided to give its ticket to the incumbent governor of the State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi. He said as a result of the APC’s decision, he had no choice but to seek alternative means of achieving “a divine call to rescue Ekiti State”.
Opeyemi, once Governor Fayemi’s bosom friend and former Commissioner for Information as well as Youth and Sports in Lagos State under then Governor Bola Tinubu, had remained resolute that it is his time to contest for the position of Governor of Ekiti State. Efforts to broker peace between him and Fayemi ended in futility just because the party hierarchy endorsed Fayemi for a second term.
There had been speculations that he was moving to dump the APC for Labour Party. The rivalry between his supporters and those of the incumbent governor had resulted in violent clashes leading to some deaths.
Days ago, a serving senator from Ekiti, Babafemi Ojudu told his supporters at a meeting that Bamidele had since dumped the party but was waiting to formally make it public. According to Ojudu, Bamidele had even informed the APC national body of his intention to dump the party, as in a meeting with Tinubu in the latter’s home in Lagos last week, he declared that he had made up his mind to leave the party. The meeting held throughout the night as Tinubu and other party chieftains made frantic efforts to convince him to wait for the incumbent to complete his second term.
Ojudu, who took over as the leader of the Ekiti State caucus of the National Assembly after Bamidele resigned the position recently, said: “Two days ago, Bamidele informed National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande of his intention to leave the party and also went to our national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to inform him of his intention to leave the APC for another progressive party to realise his ambition since the party has adopted Fayemi for a second term in office”.
With the defection, the fear within the APC currently is that Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on the platform of the Labour Party may become a major sponsor of Bamidele’s ambition, since Ekiti is a neighbouring State to Ondo. The former was carved out from the old Ondo State.
It would be recalled that Mimiko defeated the then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the governorship election held in Ondo State last year, despite all the strategies put in place by Tinubu and other members of the ACN.
