BY ABIODUN NEJO
All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirant for the Ekiti South Senatorial District in Ekiti State, Hon Opeyemi Bamidele and a contender for the flag, Senator Fatimat Raji-Rasaki on Thursday engaged in verbal war over the mode of electing the candidate.
While Raji-Rasaki, a sitting senator, who defected to APC in July, said she had been promised the ticket by the party leadership and uncomfortable with the direct election pitching her against others, Bamidele, a former House of Representatives member, said neither the party leadership nor President Muhammadu Buhari anointed any aspirant.
Bamidele, who said the candidate for the senatorial district would be determined by members who would vote in a direct primary election, which he said would ensure participatory democracy and emergence of popular candidate.
Raji-Rasaki, in an interview monitored in Ado Ekiti on Thursday kicked against the direct primaries, saying it was designed to edge her out of the race as a new member despite her adoption by APC National leadership.
The senator alleged that her case was worsened by the fact that she did not have APC membership card yet, threatening that she would drag the party to court to halt the exercise and press for her fundamental rights.
But Bamidele, while reacting to the co-contestant’s threat, advised the Senator to stop taking actions that could truncate APC chances in the 2019 senatorial election.
Bamidele clarified that available evidence indicated that President Buhari has no anointed candidate among the aspirants in Ekiti, contrary to position being canvassed by Raji-Rasaki to allegedly deceive the people.
The former federal lawmaker insisted that Raji-Rasaki is not a bonafide member of the APC, since her letter informing the Senate President, Senator
Bukola Saraki of her defection to APC has not been officially read on the floor of the upper chambers of the National Assembly.
Speaking while awaiting APC Collation Officer in the direct primary at ward A in his Iyin Ekiti countryhome, Bamidele expressed disappointment at how the Senator had allegedly resorted to all manners of plots to get the APC ticket through the backdoor.
He said the best form of primary is direct mode, which affords every member the right to participate in who becomes a candidate, urging the Senator to prepare herself for a free and fair primary, rather than armtwisting the party to accede to her request.
