Biodun Oyebanji, the former Secretary to Ekiti State Government has secured the ticket to run as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the upcoming Ekiti State gubernatorial elections.
Oyebanji was declared winner of the primary election by The Chairman, APC Governorship Primary Electoral Committee for Ekiti, and Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru. The results showed that Oyebanji edged out other aspirants with a total of 101,703 votes.
Badaru announced that former governorship aspirant, Kayode Ojo, got 767 votes; National Assembly member, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, scored 760 votes; former Minister of Works, Senator Dayo Adeyeye secured 691votes; House of Representatives member, Femi Bamisile scored 400 votes.
Others are a former House of Representatives member, Bamidele Faparusi, who garnered 376 votes; aviation expert, Demola Popoola got 239 votes; and Oluwasola Afolabi scored 47 votes.
Badaru made it clear that the elections were free and fair; and they followed the party’s guidelines. According to him, no aspirant has forwarded any complaint or filed any lawsuit.
However, all the other governorship aspirants remonstrated against the list of Local Government Electoral Committees used for the exercise.
They asserted that the list had active canvassers for a particular aspirant, Oyebanji.
The indignant aspirants – Bamidele; Adeyeye; Bamisile; Faparusi; Ojo; Popoola; and Afolabi, together with their supporters marched to the state APC Secretariat. They called for the suspension of the primary, hammering that the national leadership and and the Badaru-led committee should act in line.
They stated,
“We request that both the Local Government Election Committee and Ward Election Committee as constituted on the list already in circulation is disbanded and replaced with names that would reinforce internal democracy and uphold the aims and objectives of the party”.
The aggrieved aspirants further took their complaints to the state headquarters of the Nigeria Police, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the Department of State Services.
Conversely, Oyebanji, who emerged as the winner, described the primary as credible, free, and fair.
He maintained that the APC appeal panel would sort out any controversy around the conduct of the election.
