Tobias Sylvester
Former Secretary to the Ekiti State Government, Biodun Oyebanji has won the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election held in the state on Thursday.
Biodun Oyebanji Wins Ekiti APC Guber Primary
Oyebanji, believed to be Governor Kayode Fayemi’s preferred aspirant, was declared winner with 101,703 votes to defeat other seven aspirants who had earlier protested against the process and called for its cancellation.
The chairman of the APC primary election committee and governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru, said the exercise which took place across the 177 wards in the state was peaceful , transparent and credible.
Results of other aspirants are, Dayo Adeyeye, 691 votes ; Bamidele Faparusi, 376; Femi Bamisile, 400 ; Opeyemi Bamidele, 760 ; Demola Popoola , 239 ; Olushola Afolabi, 47 and Kayode Ojo, 767 votes.
Badaru, who said the election followed the party guidelines, said he had not received any official complaint from any aspirant.
However, earlier in the day, seven of the eight governorship aspirants protested the list of Local Government Electoral Committees for the exercise, saying it contained names of supporters and campaigners of an aspirant, Oyebanji.
The aggrieved aspirants – Bamidele; Adeyeye; Bamisile; Faparusi; Ojo; Popoola; and Afolabi, alongside their supporters stormed the state APC Secretariat where they called on the party national leadership and the Badaru-led committee to suspend the primary.
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 took their grievances to the state headquarters of the Nigeria Police, the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the Department of State Services.
However, Oyebanji described the primary as credible, free, and fair, contrary to the position maintained by his co-contestants, who branded the poll as a sham.
Oyebanji, from Ikogosi-Ekiti, in the central senatorial district, said that the APC appeal panel would handle any controversial issue surrounding the conduct of the election.
KanyiDaily recalls that a former governor, Ayodele Fayose’s preferred candidate, Bisi Kolawole also emerged as the winner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary in Ekiti State.
