THE immediate past secretary to the state government, Biodun Oyebanji, has been declared winner of the direct All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary held in Ekiti State on Thursday.
Oyebanji, from Ikogosi-Ekiti, in the central senatorial district and believed to be Governor Kayode Fayemi’s preferred aspirant, was declared winner to defeat seven other aspirants who had earlier protested against the process and called for its cancellation.
Chairman of the primary committee and governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru, declared the exercise, which took place across the 177 wards in the state, as peaceful, transparent and credible.
He expressed shock over the protests and boycott of the exercise by seven aspirants, saying the committee provided a level playing field for the contestants with the stakeholders’ meeting held on Wednesday, where he said they agreed to all the guidelines for the shadow election. Badaru revealed that the exercise went peacefully, free and fair with substantial compliance with the guidelines and regulations of the party.
He advised all aggrieved aspirants to use the internal mechanism of the party to present their grievances, saying the party must be united and embrace peace for it to win the June 18 governorship poll.
Meanwhile, earlier before the commencement of the exercise, seven governorship aspirants had staged a protest at the party secretariat in Ado-Ekiti, calling for the cancellation of the scheduled direct primary over alleged compromise.
The aspirants, Opeyemi Bamidele, Dayo Adeyeye, Femi Bamisile, Kayode Ojo, Bamidele Faparusi, Olusola Afolabi and Demola Popoola, alleged that the primary committee had compromised the process by handing over result sheets to loyalists of Governor Fayemi to the advantage of one of the aspirants, Oyebanji, across the 16 local government areas.
They called on the leadership of the party to mandate the election committee to cancel the process in the interest of the party.
The aspirants alongside their supporters also took their protest to the state office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), state office of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the state headquarters of the police command to register their displeasure.
Bamidele, flanked by other aspirants, alleged that the local government election committee were populated by appointees of the government and supporters of one of the aspirants, saying it was against the guidelines released for the election.
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The senator representing Ekiti Central alleged that all sensitive materials, including result sheets, were handed over to the loyalists of the aspirant since 10.00 p.m. on Wednesday. “When they said the results will be written, we thought it was a joke, because we thought the people in government in the state were too civilised to do that.
“However, what we are witnessing now is that sensitive election materials meant to be distributed at the party secretariat this morning in the presence of aspirants and agents were distributed between 10.00 p.m. and 12 midnight and all the people we were talking about were given the materials, including the result sheets.
“If you already gave the result sheets to a promoter of one of the aspirants, then what are we going there to do with that kind charade called election?
“As of 1.00 a.m. today in some local government areas, people were already celebrating, jubilating the election of Oyebanji. It has been displayed today that we were not given a level playing field.
“We are all members and leaders of the party and we demand justice, we demand fairness, we demand credible primary elections to be conducted in Ekiti State, that is the reason for the protests,” Bamidele said.
On the deadline of January 29 by INEC for party primaries, Bamidele said, “It is obvious now that the party deliberately waited and delayed for this day to do this charade called primary election exercise.”
Secretary of the primary election committee, Victor Olabimtan, denied the allegations, saying the list of officers submitted by the aspirants was used alongside the existing committee members. Olabimtan, a former speaker of Ondo State house of assembly, in a statement, said, “the Ekiti State APC governorship primary election committee wishes to assure the general public that a level playing field that will guarantee fairness, openness and transparency has been adopted by the committee.”
On his part, Oyebanji said the APC appeal panel will handle all controversial issues surrounding the conduct of the election. He described the primary as credible, free and fair, contrary to the position maintained by his co-contestants, who branded the poll as a sham and charade.
Speaking with journalists in his Ikogosi country home in Ekiti West Local Government Area where he voted, Oyebanji commended the Governor Badaru-led panel for being thorough in the contest of the shadow poll.
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