By Nathaniel Zaccheaus, Abuja
The Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday denied claims that he was working against the interests of the Yoruba at the National Assembly.
According to a statement by his Media Office, Bamidele also said the claims were baseless, false, and unfounded.
He noted that he had been dutifully serving the interests of Ekiti Central, Ekiti State, South-West, and Nigeria by extension since his election into the National Assembly.
He challenged any person with audio-visual and documentary evidence to come out and present such.
Some media platforms had falsely attributed a statement to the senate leader that “If we allow the regional system in Nigeria, we would have automatically given the easterners Biafra.”
Faulting the statement yesterday, Bamidele said he never made such a statement.
He said the accusation was an attempt to pitch him against the Yoruba and other ethnic nationalities in the federation.
He added that he did not make any statement about the regional government in line with the 1960 and 1963 Constitution at the 27th-28th September 2024 Senate Retreat on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.
The statement read, in part, “The claim is far from the truth. I never spoke about the return to the regional government at any forum; neither did I make a claim that ‘If we allowed the regional system in Nigeria, we would have automatically given the easterners Biafra.’
“It is a sheer case of misinformation and deliberate fake news, which do not represent my worldview about federal governance structure.”
The Senate Leader, however, warned that he would not hesitate to legally challenge any individual or establishment fabricating and circulating fake news against his person and office.
According to the Senate leader, no proposal for the return to the regional government is before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.
He said, “How then can I oppose the proposal that is not currently before the Constitution Review Committee? This statement is politically motivated to discredit me before Nigeria as a whole.
“The 10th Senate Constitution Review Committee has received 37 fresh constitution alteration bills. The Committee is also considering 16 constitution alteration bills inherited from the 9th National Assembly, making 53 alteration bills altogether.
“None of these alteration bills proposed the return to the regional federal governance structure as practised in the First Republic. Linking me to an anti-regional government is a deliberate attempt to tarnish my image. I am not working against Yoruba’s interests. I will never do so for any reason.”
