Guber Poll: Bamidele Appeals to Ekiti Workers to Vote for Fayemi

By Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, has appealed to Ekiti workers to vote for the candidate of the party, Dr Kayode Fayemi, in the July 14 governorship poll.

Bamidele said the APC is coming with strong message of hope and assurances that nobody will be victimised in Fayemi’s government and salaries, pensions and other emoluments will be paid as and when due contrary to the negative impression bandied around by mischief makers.

In a statement in Ado Ekiti on Saturday to drum support for the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Bamidele said rather than victimise the civil servants, policies that would be of tremendous benefits shall be formulated to better their lives.

Bamidele added that no sane government would toy with the civil service as a potent engine room of any government, assuring the workers that the next APC-led government will set a new template on how best to deal with workers in the most friendly and mutually beneficial way.

He appealed to the teachers, local government staff and pensioners to accept Fayemi’s open apologies and vote for APC in the coming election.

“Our message to teachers, local government staff, pensioners and other strata of Ekiti is that, they should accept our apologies.

“Anyone can make mistakes. Ekiti people had criticised Fayemi for making mistakes. I too criticised him strongly and heavily for those perceived mistakes.

“All these are not personal, they were about Ekiti. Today, the same way I criticised him was the same way I am sticking my neck in my support for him that he be given a second chance by our good people of Ekiti State.

“This is not about anybody, but about our state. Fayemi is now eight years older than when he was sworn in 2010 and four years older than when he lost in 2014. So, he has acquired more experiences in the art of governance as a minister. He now has scientific understanding of what went wrong then and how best to correct those mistakes,” he said.

Bamidele said further: “Today, our workers and pensioners have lost faith in the system. Our people are all complaining about the level of army of unemployed youth, increased poverty and hunger and other societal vices occasioned by non-payment of salaries.

“All these we must tackle collectively by having a government we can all be proud of.”

Speaking about a new rebranded Fayemi, Bamidele stated: “I could see in Dr Kayode Fayemi a totally changed person. Though, he has his own foibles just like every other human beings, but he personally told me that he had learnt his lesson and had become a changed person, which I strongly believed.

“If there is anyone who should not be receptive to Fayemi’s second coming, it should be me. But we can make mistakes, but we have to look for avenues to correct them. He was even humbled to the extent that he had apologised saying that he was on his knees.

“The way he had carried on since he won the primary gave a vivid conviction about the level of his penitence. Barely twelve hours after his victory, he had visited 16 aspirants in their respective homes, this was commendable.

“With this, he had come to full realisation that no individual can do it alone that the task to build Ekiti of our dream is a collective responsibility.”

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