The Chairman of House of
Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget and Research, Mr. Opeyemi
Bamidele, has said the endorsement of Governor Kayode Fayemi by the national
leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria can not stop him from pursuing his ambition
in 2014.
Bamidele, who represents Ekiti
Federal Constituency I at the lower legislative chamber, spoke through his
media aide, Mr. Ahmed Salami, in a telephone interview with our correspondent
in Ado Ekiti on Thursday.
There has been a cold war between
Fayemi and Bamidele over the lawmaker’s rumoured ambition. Although Bamidele
has yet to declare his ambition publicly, his utterances suggest that he wants
to contest against Fayemi in 2014 governorship poll.
National Leader of ACN, Asiwaju had
on Wednesday at a meeting in Ado Ekiti endorsed Fayemi’s term bid and asked the
lawmaker to drop his governorship ambition for now.
Those who attended the meeting apart
from Tinubu were ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande; former
governors Bamidele Olumilua and Niyi Adebayo, among others.
But his media aide said Bamidele was
not invited to the meeting which he said was supposed to be a reconciliatory
meeting.
He said, “ There is no going back for
Opeyemi Bamidele movement. He has made known his decision before now. The
meeting was called to reconcile all the warring factions within the party but
MOB (Bamidele) was not invited.”
He added that Bamidele would have
been attacked by hoodlums if he had even attended the meeting, which was held
at the Government House.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic
Party has said Bola Tinubu did not have the power to stop Bamidele from
contesting the 2014 Ekiti governorship election.
Fayemi has declared his ambition to
contest for a second term.
But the PDP said in a statement by
its Acting National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Tony Okeke, in Abuja on
Thursday, that by seeking to bar persons from contesting the Ekiti state
governorship election, Tinubu was being despotic.
Tags
Politics