Idowu Gabriel
Amidst rancour and threats of court action by other contestants, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, the immediate past Secretary to Ekiti Government was declared winner of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) governorship primaries for the state June 2022 governorship election on Thursday night.
Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, one of the aspirants had just as party members were filing out for the exercise on Thursday morning call for the cancellation of the primary.
He alleged that those saddled with the responsibility of supervising the exercise across the wards were loyalists of Governor Kayode Fayemi, who according to him, has already anointed Oyebanji as as his preferred candidate.
Bamide and five other aspirants later announced that they are withdrawing from the primary basically for the same reason.
They alleged hijack of the exercise by Governor Fayemi and called for its stoppage and cancellation.
However, other two aspirants – Mr Abiodun Oyebanji and Mr Ademola Popoola did not join in the protest.
But while declaring the winner, Chairman of the Primary Election Committee, Gov. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa, said he was surprised at the allegations by some aspirants that they were not consulted in the choice of those given the responsibility to supervise over the primary.
He added that 20 names were submitted by each of the aspirants to be added to the list of the Returning and they were all captured.
Badaru, however, explained that the meeting that was earlier slated for Thursday morning, between the committee and the aspirants was cancelled because there was security report that the venue was tensed.
He said they had to call for assistance of the security agents to arrest the situation.
The chairman said that the primaries took place across the 177 wards and that it was free and fair.
“However, there are pockets of violence, when we receive the results, we will know where we need to cancel, we will.
“As we have earlier promised, we have ensured a level playing ground for all aspirants,”the committee chairman added.
On the protest by some of the aspirants, the committee chairman added that he had not received any official petition but only heard about it on the media.
He directed that the returning officers of the wards where elections were not held should write their reports and submit same to the committee.
The results presented by the 16 Local Government Area Returning Officers revealed that OyebanjI won in all the council areas.
Oyebanji pulled 101,703 out of the total number of votes cast, Badaru said while declaring the SSG winner of the primary at the State Collation Centre, APC party Secretariat, located at Ajilosun, Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
“It is my pleasure to declare Biodun Oyebanji as the winner of this primary, haven scored the highest votes cast.
“Having satisfied all necessary criteria, I hereby declare Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji as the winner,” Badaru said.
He added that Ekiti APC had 183,560 registered members, 107,877 members were accredited and total votes cast was 104,983.
The breakdown of the results revealed other aspirants score as follows: Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele, 760, Mr Femi Bamisile, 400, Mr Kayode Ojo, 767, Sen. Adedayo Adeyeye, 691 and Mr Bamidele Faparusi, 376.
Others were, Mr Demola Popoola, 239 and Chief Oluwasola Afolabi, 47 in the “Option A4,” Direct Primary adopted for the election.