The Senate Leader and Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the National Asembly, Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, has urged the ruling APC to use the next Saturday Local Governments elections for further consolidation of its stronghold on Ekiti and sustain its current mass appeal at the grassroots.
Speaking after donating N16.4million to the APC candidates ahead of the poll, Bamidele appealed to party leadership not to underrate the opposition in the election, but urged them to mobilise and use the right strategies to win all the seats.
Represented by Mr Gbenga Banji, his Senior Legislative Aide, the senator described the good performance of Governor Biodun Oyebanji and his popularity among Ekiti masses as APC’s masterstroke in the coming election.
The beneficiaries are those who will contest the 35 chairmanship and 177 councilorship seats in the election slated for Saturday December 2, 2023 across his Ekiti Central Senatorial District.
The breakdown of the total amount indicates that the 15 LGA and LCDA chairmanship candidates got N500,000 each, their vice chairmanship candidates got N150,000 each, 57 councilorship candidates got N100,000 each, five APC local government chairmen got N50,000 each, while all the seven senatorial executives got N150,000.
The Senator presented the cheques to the candidates at an event in Ado Ekiti, on Thursday as part of his support for the party and its success ahead of the election.
According to him, the local government which happens to be the closest to the people should remain in the hands of the ruling party to ensure fair sharing of dividends of democracy.
He said, “The coming local government polls have become a fait accompli for our party, APC. We are enjoying massive support from the grassroots at the moment and we must build on it during the forthcoming election.
“This is a local election, political parties may not count, but candidates will count. So don’t underrate any political party or their candidates.
“Go out and mobilise aggressively for our party and victory shall be certain on Saturday.
“This election will also serve as a barometer, not only to gauge our current acceptability, but to project to the future.
“We will also use it to amend areas where we are weak and consolidate further on areas of strength.”
Bamidele further commended Oyebanji for allowing area councils under him to enjoy financial autonomy, saying this has facilitated sporadic development across the statutory LGAs and LCDAs.