KWARA Vanguard members have appealed to the President to consider a recently retired Prisons Department top shot, Chief Ooye Bamidele Aladodo as the nominee for the vacant ministerial slot for Kwara State. In a press statement issued and signed by Busuyi Kolawole and Adefemi Olorunda, the Vanguard’s National Chairman and National Secretary respectively, they stated that the clamour for Bamidele to be made the Minister was borne out of the desire to ensure that an indigene of the state who knows the state, has been on ground politically and would ultimately benefit the PDP as well as the people is given the post. According to the group, ‘ Ooye Bamidele Aladodo, who is the Ooye of Omu Aran does not belong to any of the three camps that are presently struggling to control the People’s Democratic Party in the state, he is a level headed person and a quiet operator who does not come out to blow his trumpet and he has been at the vanguard of building the PDP in the state. He played a significant role in the election of Abdufatai Ahmed as the Governor of Kwara state through the Kwara South Consultative Assembly which he headed and which he put to work for the PDP when the incumbent Governor was then the PDP candidate.’ This he did despite the fact that the National Publicity Secretary of the All Peoples Congress, Lai Mohammed comes from the same Local Government with him and has been pestering him to throw his weight and support behind the opposition party’.
The group urged President Jonathan not to dance to the tune of the major PDP gladiators in Kwara State to pick any of their cronies as the ministerial nominee as this would only serve to increase the distrust that is presently rocking the various camps that make up the PDP in the state. Rather, the President should pick someone who has the grassroots support and who has been identified as an achiever and could rally the various camps together in order to deliver the party to the state in 2015.
Stressing the fact that the challenges faced by PDP in Kwara is enormous and whoever emerges as the minister representing the state must be seen to be above board and be willing to carry the people along, the Kwara Vanguard stated that Chief Bamidele Aladodo is eminently qualified to fill the vacuum if the President gives him the go ahead.
The group recalled how Chief Bamidele came to the rescue of the University of Ilorin Teaching hospital through donations of beddings as well as other necessities through the Platinum Friends Club where he is the Governor-General, they also alluded to his yeoman role in ensuring that normalcy returned to banking in Omu Aran after the series of bank robberies forced banks in the area to close shop. According to the group, ‘leaders who do not make noise and come to the rescue of their people when in need would definitely find it easier to access the people when they want anything from them politically.
According to the group, Bamidele Aladodo is an asset to the PDP in Kwara state and the earlier the party recognizes this and attract him to their fold the better, stressing that the opposition APC has been making overtures to him ever since they realised that he has not come out to publicly associate with the PDP because he only recently left the civil service.
They also called on the State PDP Chairman, Iyiola Oyedepo to ensure that the President pick the right man for the job rather than recycling people who cannot take the party to a new level or people who are alienated from the people because of their background.
The Kwara Vanguard also disclosed that they are not doing this alone as virtually all the youth and interest groups in the Kwara South Senatorial District have agreed that when the time comes they are going to draft Chief Ademola Bamidele out to contest as the Senator representing the District in the National Assembly.
Mentioning names of other groups already committed to the project, the Vanguard revealed that Kwara South Youth Forum, Igbomina Progressive Women Omu Aran Youth Forum are all groups that at various times have indicated that they would want Chief Bamidele to be the next Senator representing the senatorial district as the incumbent who is in his third term in the senate is believed to be gunning for the PDP gubernatorial ticket in 2015.
They believe that ‘with other local Governments producing the senator representing the district since the return to democracy in 1999, it is only natural that they should concede the seat to Irepodun Local Government and Omu Aran would be highly favoured to claim it’. The group also stated that they have embarked on collection of signatures of youths and leaders in the state with a view to garnering as many as 200,000 eligible voters who would be willing to vote for Chief Bamidele in a bid to persuade him to dump his present job and come home to contest.
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