Adebayo Adenrele
A former gubernatorial aspirant of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Engineer Kayode Ojo, lawmaker representing Ekiti South II Constituency in the House of Representatives, Richard Bamisile and 9 others were not in attendance, as the 57-man Ekiti APC Gubernatorial Election Campaign Council was inaugurated.
Recall that Kayode Ojo, who was disqualified by the APC National Working Committee for failing to meet up with the required party’s primary standards, was included in the campaign list for Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s reelection bid, in ensuring that the party wins the forthcoming June 20 governorship poll in Ekiti.
However, during the inauguration ceremony held in Ado-Ekiti on Monday at the party’s Secretariat, Kayode Ojo and 10 other members of the Council were not in attendance, with some of them such as Bamisile, sending their unreserved apology.
During the inauguration, Governor Biodun Oyebanji warned members and stakeholders of the party against overconfidence, urging them to approach the election as underdogs.
Oyebanji expressed his disappointment at the trends among party members saying he has won the election, stressing that effective and efficient mobilisation would materialise into victory and not just words of mouth.
The State’s Helsman tasked them to approach the election with all seriousness, by engaging in house-to-house awareness, in order for the party to record at least, 500,000 votes.
Governor Oyebanji expressed his profound gratitude to the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, for accepting to chair the council, saying his commitment towards his re-election bid reflects his desire in making sure that the State remains in safe hands.
He urged the Council to work within the tenets of the electoral law and without violence, while also calling on oppositions to remain calm and peaceful for a violence-free election.
His words, “Before I take my seat, I just want to rest on what the leader said. I keep hearing from people that there are no problems, that if we don’t campaign, we have already won.
“I do not want us to go along that line. I want us to beware of overconfidence, of assuming that we have won. We should not. We should approach this election as if we are the underdog.
“I am pleading with all of us: we should give it all the seriousness it deserves. Anybody that says June 20 is not important is not our friend. We have not won the election until the election is declared.
“As the leader said, it is not just about winning. You can win and not win convincingly. We want to make a statement on June 20 so that Mr President will sleep very well in the night knowing that in 2027 there is no problem.
“Our target as a party is nothing less than 500,000 votes. It has never happened in the history of this state. Anything less than that is not a win for us. To do that, we have to bring out the people. We need the numbers.
“That is why I must commend the chairman for tweaking the campaign strategy down to the ward and unit level. We need to connect with the voters, identify them before the election and bring them out on the day of the election.
“As your candidate, I stand here to affirm to you that our campaign will be issue-based. It will be decent, mature and balanced. I will not do anything that will disgrace our party. We have enough to compete with.
“We are going to campaign on the strength of the performance of the president and our performance at this level. So we have a lot of things to tell the people with respect to the promises we made to them and what we have delivered so far.
“I congratulate all of us and I reiterate my commitment to a peaceful campaign in this election. I also appeal to all other contestants to ensure that they behave in accordance with the dictates of the Electoral Act.
“We must not do anything that will bring crisis or violence into our state. Our ambitions individually are not worth the blood of any man.
“I appeal to all our supporters to ensure that violence does not occur. Let us continue to mobilize and fulfill all the promises we have made to the people. God has helped us and the party has supported us to fulfill most of these promises”.
In his acceptance speech, the Chairman of the Council, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele appreciated the party for the confidence reposed in him to lead the council.
The Senate Leader expressed his belief that the June 20 election will be a referendum to affirm and confirm the political leadership of Ekiti state.
He noted that the Governor has been providing transformative leadership that accommodates the interests of all regardless of their political, ideological and religious affiliations.
This according to him, has reflected in his unprecedented commitment to developing road infrastructure, empowering youths, providing an enabling environment for businesses, prioritising human capital development and implementing different agricultural programmes that contribute to the attainment of Nigeria’s food security objectives.
He said, “I am pleased to come and perform the role of coordinator. Let me first sincerely appreciate the leadership of our great party for nominating me to chair the re-election campaign council of my dear brother, leader and the amiable governor of our dear state.
“For me, this is not just a mark of honour but also a rare opportunity to serve as the chief marketing officer for our great party and its flag bearer. Alongside 56 other members of the council, I pledge to drive this re-election campaign with a sense of duty and lead our party to a landslide victory come June 20, 2026.
“I strongly believe that the June 20 election will be a referendum to affirm and confirm the political leadership of our dear state.
“The reasons are clear and simple. In the last 40 months, Governor Oyebanji has been consciously steering the affairs of our state with courage and vision, with confidence and synergy and with persistent and unalloyed commitment to the well-being of over 3.8 million residents of our state.
“We are all witnesses to the enviable governance records that have been achieved since this journey started in October 2022. Within this time frame, the state has enjoyed cohesion, peace and stability both politically and socially.
“This is no mean feat by all standards and we must all stand by him, whether now or in the future, as we have always done since the inception of this government”.
