Dappa Maharajah
AGGRIEVED youths in Idanre/Ifedore Federal Constituency of Ondo State have begun the recall process of the member representing them in the National Assembly, Mr. Bamidele Baderinwa.
The youths, under the auspices of Idanre/Ifedore Youth Coalition, noted that they have been been consulting the voters in the constituency to educate them on the need to sack the lawmaker.
The Polity gathered that the youths have urged registered voters to bring their voters cards and gathered at two venues in Idanre and Ifedore Local Government Areas of the state at a date that would be announced soon.
According to a source in the area, the voters in Idanre Local Government would gather at Owena town, while voters from Ifedore Local Government would converge at Igbara-Oke for the exercise.
The Coordinator of the group, Mr. Adeyemi Alabi, who spoke with journalists in Akure on Tuesday, said the youths of the Federal constituency were determined to lead the struggle.
Moreover, Baderinwa was alleged of poor representation at the lower chamber and utter abandonment of the two councils that constitute the constituency.
Alabi explained that over 30 youths have been stationed at all the wards in the two local governments to sensitize the people on the need to participate in the exercise.
According to him, a house-to-house sensitization had begun since last week, stressing that the people of the constituency were ready to remove the lawmaker.
“As you can see, we are set for the process of recalling our representative at the Federal House of Representatives, Baderinwa Bamidele, must be recalled.
“This is democracy at work and we are happy that we are taking solace in the beauty of democracy: we have lost confidence in Baderinwa, so he must go.
“Mr. Bamidele has performed woefully, compared to the likes of Hon. Afe Olowokere and the rest. That Hon. Bamidele have not impacted positively in the lives of the people of our constituency.”
He implored credible voters in the area to come out enmasse for the recall process, warning that only credible voters with valid voter cards would be allowed to participate in the exercise.
Similarly, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ifedore council described a purported statement credited to one Adekunle Adewale, who had earlier denied the recall attempt, as laughable.
The party in a statement signed by the Organising Secretary, Mr. Akinloye Bolarinde, said Adewale’s reaction came as a shock to the party because he had decamped to the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
“Adewale is a card carrying member of AD. He was an AD polling agent in his Ikota unit in the last gubernatorial election. We the LG executives of APC later replaced him with Mr Mogaji Ezekiel from the same unit after he had defected to AD immediately after the gubernatorial primary.
“He is from unit 1, idi Aagba in Ikota and he only managed to have 8 votes for AD in the last gubernatorial election where he was an agent.”
The party maintained that Adewale’s reaction on the matter and his claims as the youth leader of the party raised suspicion, saying “We will like to state that it is not only criminal but also shocking for a member of the AD to speak for the APC.
“Adewale is the cousin of Hon. Baderinwa, but he is not a member of APC, he has since defected to AD before the last gubernatorial election.”
However, the party disclosed that it “received with shock the purported recall of Hon. Baderinwa Bamidele. We are not happy over the development.
“But, we will like to state that the youths in Idanre/Ifedore are only romancing with their constitutional right. We will like to appeal to them to please let dialogue. This recall is not a thing of joy to the APC.
“But as a politic party who believes so much in the rule of law, we can not stop the youths from exercising their constitutional right, we can only appeal to them,” the statement read in part.
