Bamidele, other LP faithful decamp to APC in Ekiti

Labour Party’s, LP, governorship candidate in Ekiti State in the June 21, 2014 election, Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, has defected with his teeming supporters from the party to the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State, saying he is returning to the party to ensure there is stability and to give it a new face in the state.
At a press conference held in his country home, Iyin-Ekiti, he noted that they took the decision to rescue the party from the brink of collapse it suffered in the last governorship election in the state.
Bamidele commended the national leaders of the party, the president-elect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, former National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande and his successor, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, for their resolute belief in him despite his defection to Labour Party.
Bamidele, who is the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget and Research contested for the governorship poll on the platform of LP, but Ayo Fayose, won the election by defeating the then governor of the state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi and the candidate of the APC in the election.
Bamidele, whose political platform; Ekiti Bibire Coalition had defected from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to LP following irreconcilable differences with ex-Governor Kayode Fayemi in 2013, said that he would have defected to APC with his teeming supporters before March 28 election, but for the fact that the party had fielded candidates for various positions in the general elections.
He said it would be an act of betrayal of trust for him to have abandoned the candidates and defected to APC to mobilize support for the president-elect, in the presidential poll.
The lawmaker, who called on all political actors in the state to be wary of their actions in order not to derail the democratic process, described the impeachment saga on Fayose’s head as a manifestation of injustice that had eluded the State.
“All of us the candidates contested on different platforms for the number one seat in the state, but as we all know in any contest, someone must emerge the winner. Whether or not the contest was fair, posterity and the court of law shall judge. That is not the bone of contention for today’s press briefing. I sincerely urge you to let us defer that to another day.
“Today, by the special leading of Almighty God and after the due consultation with my immediate family, friends, confidants and political associates within and outside Ekiti State, I, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, the Federal lawmaker representing Ado/Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency hereby wish to declare my intent to decamp to the All Progressives Congress, APC, as from today, Tuesday, 19th May, 2015.” he said.
Continuing he said, “it was an age-long vision of the progressives in the southern part of the country to join forces with equally visionary and progressive politicians in the north to rescue our nation from bad leadership and its attendant hydra-headed manifestations that have come to characterize Nigeria in recent history: corruption, poverty and insecurity”, he concluded.