A former Lagos State Commissioner for Information,MrOpeyemi Bamidele has vowed not to step down for anyone ahead of Saturdays governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti.
Bamidele, an aspirant, made the vow while addressing delegates for the primaries in Ado-Ekiti, describing as laughable the rumour making the rounds that he had stepped down.
He said there was no reason for him to quit when he wasconvinced that he had a good chance of clinchingthe partys ticket.
Bamidele stated that with the assurances given by the APC Nationalleader, Bola Tinubu, and other leaders of the partyat a meetingheld in Lagoson Friday, he had no reason to doubt thecredibility of the process.
He said he expected the party leaders to conduct a free, fair and credibleprimary election that would produce a strong candidate capable of defeating the candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party.
It will be tragic for APC to lose after passing throughthis stress; so we must do the right thing for us to get the rightresult.
I have traversed all the 177 wards and I am now visiting all the 16local governments in search of delegates.
At 54, if I want to stepdown, I wont waste time, energy and money, moving around. I will noteven pretend in telling the public about it
Let me say that I am on the field, in the race and on Saturday, weare looking forward to getting the ticket by the grace of God, hesaid.
Counselling the delegates on the choice of candidate they should vote for, Bamidele saidthey shouldchoosesomeone who has the acceptability and clout to win as well as the knack to organise the party andmake it a formidable force.
APC needs an experienced person and someone with scientificunderstanding of what has gone wrong in Ekiti and how to resolve it.
I have been commissioner for over 10 years in executive arm, I havebeen amember ofHouse of Representatives and I am also a lawyer, whichfalls within the judicial arm
I will not in any way disappoint if given the ticket because I am aloyal party man and I know how to work with everybody to get theuseful result, he said.
On the sincerity ofmembers of the Chief John Oyegun-led National Working Committee to conduct credible primary election, Bamidele said: I have no reason to doubt their integrity.
All the aspirants had gone through screening and as we were doingthis, we were given a copy of delegates list each. We all know whowill vote on Saturday.
With this, I dont envisage that anyone would try to tamper with thelist or see anyone trying to do accreditation at another locationdifferent from where they will vote which can give opportunity totransport fake delegates to the venue.
The NWC, National and zonal leaders as well as the aspirants haveagreed on some pacts and I believe these shall be allowed to prevailin this election.
Source: NAN