A member of House of Representatives, Opeyemi Bamidele, has faulted the All Progressives Congress ward leaders in his country home of Iyin Ekiti for listing conditions for his defection to the party.
The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Legislative Budget and Research, had last Tuesday announced his defection with other members of the Labour Party to the APC.
But in a joint communique signed by the APC Chairmen in Iyin Ward A, Ope Ogundele and Iyin Ward B, Folorunso Adeuyi, after a meeting last Wednesday, the APC leaders said they only learnt of his defection through the media.
Bamidele had in 2014 defected from the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, one of the founding parties of the APC to contest under the platform of LP in the June 21, 2014 governorship election won by Governor Ayodele Fayose.
While admitting that though the Nigerian constitution allowed freedom of association and exit, the ward leaders said they expected Bamidele to consult within the grassroots party structure before organising defection ceremony to join the APC.
“The leadership was shocked on learning of his defection through the media. Bamidele neither came to his ward nor was he received by any party leader in accordance with the rules and regulations of our party,” the communique said.
However, in a statement by his media aide, Ahmed Salami, on Sunday in Ado Ekiti, Bamidele described the conditions as “not only antithetical to democratic norms and ethos, but hypocritical and smack of ignorance about the party’s modus operandi.”
He added that Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution vested on individual citizens the powers to join or exit any political party without hindrance, once such person had not been expelled or suspended from such political party.
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Bamidele said he actually carried the national leader of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and the Deputy National Chairman, South, Chief Segun Oni along on his defection to the party.
He wondered where the ward leaders derived their powers from to act in a brazen manner, which suggested that they were ignorant of the constitution and how a respectable party like APC operates.
He said, “Where were these people and their so called leaders when Bamidele was heralded in to APC rally with a standing ovation in Ado Ekiti when he came at the instance of the national leaders of the party to become part of Buhari / Osibajo presidential campaign project in Ekiti state?
“Why did they not reject the massive contribution of Bamidele and his group between January and march 28, 2015 that led to President Buhari securing 41% of Presidential vote in Ekiti state? Genuine leaders of APC in Ekiti state are happy that Bamidele is back within the fold because they were confident that, with his coming, things can not be the same in Ekiti State.”
