Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget and Research, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele |
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.
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