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- APC inaugurates campaign council for governor’s re-election
From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
The Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, has predicted victory for Governor Biodun Oyebanji and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the June 20 governorship election in the state.
Bamidele said Governor Oyebanji’s remarkable achievements and his
transformative leadership will make the people re-elect him.
The Senate Leader made the remarks at the party’s inauguration of a 57- member campaign council for the re-election of Governor Oyebanji held on Monday at the party’s secretariat in Ado-Ekiti, capital of the state.
Bamidele, who is the chairman of the campaign council said the members were carefully selected, pledging that the council would work assiduously across the state, and mobilise voters to ensure victory for the party and its candidate in the forthcoming poll.
While noting that the Governor has made the work of the campaign council a lot easier through his delivery of good governance, people-oriented programmes and impressive performance, Bamidele expressed optimism that the APC will achieve decisive victory in the June election .
Similarly, Bamidele disclosed that the party has developed a mobilisation plan to deliver at least 10 million votes for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu in the Southwest.
According to him, the party would use the Ekiti election as a platform to demonstrate its strength and readiness for the 2027 presidential poll.
The Senate Leader urged members of the campaign council and party members to remain united, intensify grassroots mobilisation and work collectively to achieve the target of securing 90 percent of the votes cast at the poll, pointing out that consistent efforts and commitment would be essential to securing a decisive win.
“We are all witnesses to enviable governance records that have been achieved since this journey started in October 2022. Within this timeframe, Ekiti State has enjoyed cohesion, peace and stability, politically and socially.
“Governor Oyebanji has been providing transformative leadership that accommodates the interests of all regardless of their political, ideological and religious affiliations and because of this, will not only ensure victory for our party, we will also ensure that our party will record at least 90 percent of the total votes cast in the election.”
In his remarks, Governor Oyebanji, commended the leadership of the party for ensuring the campaign council is inclusive and representative of all stakeholders, stressing that the
arrangement would further strengthen the party’s unity and provide a solid foundation for a successful campaign.
While cautioning against complacency, the Governor urged party members to see the election as a huge task, promising that his campaign would be issue-based and violence-free.
” I must thank the party for putting list together, I am grateful to you because it is inclusive and touches all sectors, I am so happy that the party did a very good job. As your candidate, I stand here to affirm to you that our campaign will be issue-based, it will be decent, matured and violence-free. We have enough to campaign with and we are going to campaign on the strength of the President and our performance at this level.
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“I want to reiterate, because I keep hearing people say something like you don’t have problem, you have won. I don’t want us to go along that line. We should approach this election as if we are the underdog, I am pleading with all of us, we should give this election the seriousness it deserves. We want to make a statement on June 20. We want to tell Mr President that come 2027, we shall deliver an unprecedented huge number of votes. Our target for this coming election, as a party is nothing less than 500,000 votes. So, we cannot afford to be complacent,” the Governor said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the State Chairman of the Party, Barr Sola Elesin, charged members to actively engage with the grassroots across the state, stressing that direct interaction with voters is very key in building support for the party and its candidate.
He also called on political appointees and office holders to provide full support to the council, stressing that every stakeholder has a role to play in ensuring the success of the campaign.
A member of the campaign council and lawmaker representing Ekiti South Federal Constituency 1 at the House of Representatives, (AVM Retd) Adeniyi Ojuawo, said Governor Oyebanji’s name is a household name, noting it will make the job easy for members of the campaign council.
” The first thing is that we have a marketable commodity and that is Governor Biodun Oyebanji himself. Even without much campaign Governor Oyebanji is a household name in Ekiti and everybody is mobilising for him.
“At the inauguration, Governor Oyebanji said some guys are complaining that some people are taking over their job, that means that everybody is struggling to mobilise for Governor Oyebanji. So, that name alone has made the job so easy for those of us who are in his campaign council.
” But the Governor told us not to take anything for granted. He said if we assume that we have won the election, we might be surprised. He said we should double our efforts in mobilising people and we are going to do that.
” For me, in my own constituency, I am going to go all out. I am not going to do unit to unit only. I am also going to do door to door to be sure that people are aware.
“Also, the Governor said that his campaign will be issue-based and luckily for us we have enough to campaign with, so our candidate is easy for us to sell. He is a marketable commodity and we are going to market him.”
Another member of the campaign council who represented Ekiti South Senatorial District and former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Biodun Olujimi, said they would woo the voters through grassroots-based campaign.
“We are going to do grassroots campaign because the governor told us that he doesn’t believe in one million bosses and two million people recirculating themselves around that we should go as par unit which is the bedrock of democracy and that is what we will do.
“In fact, in my local government as at the weekend, we had agreed that every unit would bring up ten to twenty persons who will look at the voters’ list and identify the voters and start wooing them for the party.
” The thing working for us basically is that we have a great man championing the campaign council and that is Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, and of course, a good product, the Governor, who is greatly loved.
” But we must turn the love for Governor Oyebanji into votes. And that is why we must work very hard to be able to triple our figures because we are aiming at more than 500,000 votes and I know if we work hard we will be able to get that.”
