From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
One of the governorship aspirants in the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) primary election in Ekiti State, Hon. Femi Bamisile has reversed his earlier decision to challenge in court the outcome of the January 27 election where the former Secretary to the State Government, Hon Biodun Oyebanji had emerged the party’s flag bearer for the June 18 election.
Bamisile disclosed that he decided to support the candidature of Oyebanji in the overall interest of the APC in the state.
The Federal lawmaker representing Ekiti East/ Gbonyin/ Emure alongside six other aggrieved aspirants had vowed to challenge the processes of the shadow poll, citing alleged irregularities and manipulation in favour of Oyebanji, who is believed to be the preferred candidate of Governor Kayode Fayemi.
But, Bamisile while addressing newsmen on Friday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, said his decision to support the candidate of the APC on the shadow poll was to avert the electoral misfortune that befell the party in Zamfara State.
He dismissed as untrue and peurile the insinuations that he backtracked on his earlier stance because he was offered return ticket, saying that his action was primarily informed by the need to sustain the unity of the party.
“What I have just said today is that I am standing with the party. Whatever the party wants us to do, we would do. I can’t destroy the party I joined others to build and I have penchant for building political parties.
“I still maintain my stand, it really was not an election. It was a process that had become acceptable to some of us because we are party men. But it was not an election”.
The lawmaker, who said he had dropped the option to challenge the election in court in the interest of moving APC forward, said, “We are not going to leave the party. I can’t be sent out of a house that I built. Nobody can send me out of APC.
“I was the first person to make it bold that I will fight it beyond all reckoning and part of that was to actually go to court. I have spoken to Lateef Fagbemi and Yussuf Alli on this, but looking at the larger picture, would I want Ekiti to go the way of Zamfara? No,
Bamisile, who said the rooms for the Zamfara treatment was there for the party with litigation, said, “But all these things could be resolved, so I need not wait for the reconciliation team of the party. I think for me, I need to reconcile with myself. What I have just said is that I am standing with the party. Whatever the party wants us to do, we would do”.
He urged all his supporters across the 177 wards in the state to remain calm and support the candidate of the party in the forthcoming election, saying “there is still a lot ahead of us”.