Ekiti: ACN leaders stop Bamidele’s gov bid

[Punch]

The National Leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, have tactically scuttled the governorship ambition of Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele in 2014.

The leaders of the party, according to impeccable  sources, asked Bamidele to drop his ambition for now at a meeting held at Jibowu Hall inside Ekiti State Government House on Wednesday.

Those who attended the meeting included Tinubu, Akande, former governor Bamidele Olumilua, Niyi Adebayo, ACN chairman in Ekiti, Chief Jide Awe, Fayemi, his wife, Bisi, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Mr. Dele Alake, other chiefs of the party in the state and cabinet members. Bamidele, however, was not present at the meeting held obviously to resolve the crisis within the party and to prepare the party ahead of the 2014 governorship poll.

There has  been a cold war between the supporters of Bamidele and incumbent Governor Kayode Fayemi over the 2014 governorship poll. The intervention of the national leadership of the party seemed to have scuttled the former's ambition to contest on the platform of the ruling party.

Bamidele has insisted he would make public his political ambition whenever the INEC gives the go ahead  for the commencement of political activities.

Sources, who attended the meeting, said Tinubu openly asked Fayemi to go ahead and seek reelection because he had done very well.

"Fayemi will go for second term and he would win. We will come back for official endorsement later. Have I ever collected any contract from you? Tell them now if I have ever got any contract here," Tinubu  was quoted to have said.

He warned members of Fayemi's cabinet against fuelling crisis within the party, saying everyone must work together for the unity of the party.

In an interview with journalists, Tinubu, however, spoke on national issues, saying the new party, APC, would oust the ruling Peoples Democratic  Party at the national level in 2015.



The Punch