He spoke with newsmen in his native Iyin Ekiti in Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government Area saying: “he was in the APC to contribute his quota to strengthen the party.”

He was accompanied by his supporters, whom he assured that, he still believes in the betterment of his community, and urged them to attend APC ward meetings as well as register as members.

Bamidele had left the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to join the Labour Party (LP) in November 2013.

However, he lost the June 21, 2014, governorship election and then decided to switch places again. He had on January 24, 2015, appeared alongside now president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, on his election campaign rally.

He then announced that, the Labour party was backing the APC candidate come election time.

Bamidele, who thanked the LP for giving him the opportunity to represent the party, said his change was not due to ambition, rather of like minds having need to work togther in the interest of the people.

According to him, “Our coming together with those that are there before will further strengthen the party”.

He assured that with his entry into APC, the party would not be “the same APC the electorate rejected three times at the last general elections”.

“By and large, politics, if it is meant to serve the common interest, must be a dynamic aspect of human endeavour that embodies a whole process of expression, competition and reconciliation of personal interests for the ultimate benefit of the people.

“Let me use this opportunity to reiterate that my decision to contest for the governorship of Ekiti State was borne out of my innate conviction and that of many like-minds of mine, most of whom are illustrious sons and daughters of this great State, that though the ACN-led administration then was doing its best, however, its best was not enough for our much expectant but highly disillusioned people.

“Invariably, I would have loved to stand in for the gubernatorial race on the platform of the ACN as a vision-driven progressive party under the leadership of an equally dynamic leader, benefactor and mentor of mine, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“But when it became apparent that party primaries for candidate selection was not likely to hold in the Ekiti Chapter of the ACN/APC, I had no choice at some point in the course of expressing my intent to offer our people a better leadership, than to move to another suitable party where I could be offered the ticket to contest in the ensuing governorship election.

“All of us the candidates contested on different platforms. But as we all know in any contest, someone must emerge the winner.

Whether or not the contest was fair, posterity and the court of law shall judge. That is not the bone of contention for today’s press briefing. I sincerely urge you to let us defer that to another day.

“Today, by the special leading of Almighty God and after the due consultation with my immediate family, friends, confidants and political associates within and outside Ekiti State, I, Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, the Federal lawmaker representing Ado/Irepodun-Ifelodun Federal Constituency hereby wish to declare my intent to decamp to the All Progressives Congress (APC) as from today, Tuesday, 19th May, 2015,”  he said.

Bamidele said the progressives bloc offers Nigerians the hope for the realisation of a great country, where poverty would be history and corruption a thing of the last.

“This was the more reason I felt comfortable to be part of the movement for the realization of the Buhari/Osinbajo project despite my membership of the Labour Party then.

“It was an age-long vision of the progressives in the Southern part of the country to join forces with equally visionary and progressive politicians in the North to rescue our nation from bad leadership and its attendant hydra-headed manifestations that have come to characterize Nigeria in recent history: corruption, poverty and insecurity,”  he said.

Opeyemi Bamidele was the LP representative in the Ekiti state governorship elections last year, but he came out third in the race.

READ MORE: http://www.naij.com/442049-bamidele-finally-dumps-labour-for-apc.html