Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, has said that nobody is stopping Mr Opeyemi Bamidele from declaring his interest in the 2014 governorship race in the state.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Olayinka Oyebode, said Governor Fayemi, however, advised that such aspiration should be pursued within the limits of the laws of the land.
Governor Fayemi, who had spoken on the controversies trailing last Thursday’s disruption of Bamidele’s political rally by men of the Nigerian Police, said in the statement that his administration had “no hands in the matter as it was strictly a police affair.”
The governor stated that “no fewer than 10 other governorship aspirants from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had declared interest in the race without any molestation from the APC-led government.” He queried the rationale behind Bamidele’s allegations that the disruption of his rally was at the prompting of the government.
The police, he maintained, was not under the control of the state government, hence, Bamidele’s claims that the police’s action was engineered by the state government was unfounded.
The statement, however, said that the police, as a law enforcement agency, had the responsibility to determine actions and situations that can cause the breach of peace in the society and take appropriate actions to safeguard against such.
The statement reads in part: “A lot of misrepresentations have been peddled in the media about the event of last Thursday. It is important to state clearly that the state governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, has no interest in stopping Hon Bamidele or anybody from declaring interest in the governorship race in the state.
“It is on record that no fewer than 10 aspirants have made public declaration of their interest in the race and none of them was harassed for doing so. If the police have an issue with Hon Bamidele’s approach, the most honourable thing for him to do is to comply with the laid down procedures instead of resorting to blame game and name calling.
“Ekiti State remains one of the most peaceful states in the country and the cooperation of all is needed to sustain the peaceful atmosphere and the tangible development across the state.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s former envoy to Canada, Ambassador Dare Bejide, has asked the Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, to investigate the role of Ekiti police command in the crisis that rocked Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, on Thursday.
Bejide, a PDP governorship aspirant in the state, in a statement made available to newsmen, in Ado Ekiti, on Monday, alleged that the police took sides by tear-gassing people who wanted “to freely associate with Mr Opeyemi Bamidele, who is aspiring to govern Ekiti State in 2014.”
Bejide said: “The way the policemen in Ekiti command disrupted the rally organised by Hon Bamidele and a member of APC, last Thursday, signalled danger for democracy, human values and citizens rights to associate freely and vie for political post of his choice.
“Our fear is not only in the way the masses were tear-gassed for associating freely with Hon Bamidele, but we members of the PDP are not comfortable because one can imagine what those in power will do to PDP aspirants and members if they could do this to one of their own.”
“These desperate people did not only hire the services of commercial drivers and street urchins to wreak havoc on innocent citizens, they did it in connivance with the police. Innocent people, who were at home, were harassed and tortured by the smoke of the teargas the police fired at the crowd.”
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