2026: I Have No Intention of Running for Ekiti Governorship, Declares Ope Bamidele

Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

The Senate Leader, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, has reiterated that he didn’t have the intention to run for governorship in the state in 2026.
Bamidele made this known again on Friday while inaugurating the public e-library he built for the state which he named after his former school principal, late Bishop Gabriel Oloniyo in Ado-Ekiti, the State capital.

“I have said it in good faith. It’s about our people who are hungry and need all the help. It’s about the  people who are underemployed. It’s about the progress of the state. I chose to form a partnership that I know in the eight years with BAO governorship will take the State to a greater height. I am sorry if I offended anyone,” Bamidele said.

Describing the personality of his mentor, the late Bishop Oloniyo, whom, Bamidele, representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District of Ekiti State, said he met him in 1976 when he was admitted into Egba Owode Grammar School in Ogun State, where he was the school principal.
The Senate Leader said, Oloniyo instilled a lot of discipline in him and other people who were privileged to school under his tutelage saying he  didn’t spare the cane.

“He flogged like no man did. I can’t remember any teacher who flogged more than the late Bishop Oloniyo. He was not only a school principal but also a class teacher. He’s someone I have a lot of honour and respect for, and someone to whom I owe a lot of gratitude as a mentor.
“I am personally happy today that somehow, I have found a way to recognise our father and it’s really my pleasure to handover the facility to the State”. Said the distinguished Senator.”

In his remarks, Governor Biodun Oyebanji said the library was very critical and dear to him, and promised to build a public library when he got a complaint from the Executive Secretary of the State Library Board, Mrs Yemisi Adeleye, that the State known as Fountain of Knowledge was not having a befitting library.
Oyebanji said he consulted the Senate Leader about it and that he told him that he was building one already and promised that he would release it to the State.