Former Fayemi ally dumps APC, joins SDP in Ekiti over candidate imposition

A former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ekiti State, Bimbo Daramola has dumped the party for the Social Democratic Party, SDP, ahead of the June 18, 2022 governorship poll.

Daramola, a lawmaker who represented his former party at the House of Representatives, Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1, between 2011-2015 said his decision to leave the party is the result of poor treatment meted out to him, despite his sacrifice for the party for almost two decades.

Speaking to journalists in Ward two Ire-Ekiti, shortly after he was admitted into SDP, Daramola said, “I was detained in this party in 2019 and then in 2022, some people are making it difficult for me to be able to serve my people”

“People are being selected and people are telling me not to contest and all that, I felt that my first option was to leave and to quit politics”

“But look at our mothers here, look at all of these people, how am I going to quit politics, I love my people from the bottom of my heart”

“I was a strickler in this party, I supported that party with all of my life and put my life on the line and what did I get from it, nothing”

Daramola said, ” today, it is with a large sense of pain, somewhat disappointed that I turn my back and walk away from the house that we jointly built on strong values, what I thought were the pristine values of Ekiti people and our commitment and dedication to a society that works, held in place by pillars of the creed and ethos of pure love, justice, fairness and unity of purpose.

“When I chose to leave the comfort of a predictable and straightforward life in the organized public sector, as a Geologist turned Banker and PR Consultant, where the guarantees of a good life for myself and family and maybe a few others were not in doubt, I had assumed and lived with the impression that I was pursuing a dream to contribute to the building of a society and state where life could be more meaningful for a lot more people over and above few privileged fat cats or self which is what “good” politics promises, but no sooner than I came in that I began to see different twists and human machinations’ that are antithetical to the ideals that politics is meant to advance, fulfil and deliver on. ”

He lamented that ” in a party where I gave all of me and putting my life on the line severally, over the past 18years, it seems the environment is deliberately been made very toxic for the sincerity of intentions, asphyxiating to the advancement of true service.

“How can I be in a party people would have pre-destined where I go, they pick who would go to the House of Representatives, the Senate and use SMS to pick those who will go to the state assembly, so, I had to do what I had to do”

“What I am doing today, am not making a mistake and it’s not a guesswork, it’s a well thought out plan”

Daramola added that politics must have meaning, it’s unfortunate that we gather people together and ride on their mandate to power only to abandon them.

Receiving Daramola to the party, the SDP in Ire-Ekiti Ward 2, the Chairman, Sunday Ajayi, described him as a great mobilizer and lover of his people, a true Ire son who has been supporting his people at all times.