Ahead of June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State, the former Secretary to Ekiti State Government, Biodun Oyebanji, on Thursday, confirmed the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The Chairman, APC Governorship Primary Electoral Committee for Ekiti, and Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru, who declared Oyebanji winner of the primary election, said the former SSG scored 101,703 votes to defeat other aspirants.
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, who said the election followed the party guidelines, said he had not received any official complaint from any aspirant.
However, 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.
He said that the APC appeal panel would handle any controversial issue surrounding the conduct of the election.
