I’m Not Working against Yoruba’s Interest, Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, Asserts

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday, faulted claims that he was working against the interests of the Yoruba at the National Assembly.

Bamidele, according to a statement by his Media Office, 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 recently 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, Bamidele said he never made such a statement, and that the accusation was an attempt to pit 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 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 allow 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 in any way represent my worldview about federal governance structure,” Bamidele said.

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.

He there was no proposal at the moment for the return to the regional government before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.