Biodun Oyebanji has beat 7 other aspirants to emerge as the flagbearer of the All Progressive Congress at the party’s governorship primary ahead of the June polls.
Oyebanji who is the immediate outgoing Secretary to the State government of Ekiti State polled 101,703 votes out of the total 104,983 votes which were counted.
Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru who is the Chairman of the APC Governorship Primary Electoral Committee for Ekiti declared Oyebanji the winner. He announced the first runner-up to be Kayode Ojo who received 767 votes.
Also vying for the opportunity to fly the APC flag were National Assembly member, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele who got 760 votes; former Minister of Works, Senator Dayo Adeyeye who scored 691 votes; as well as House of Representatives member, Femi Bamisile who accrued 400 votes.
Abubakar Badaru declared that the primary was free and fair and that he had not received any complaints from any other aspirant.
On the contrary, all of the 7 other aspirants, earlier in the day, decried the mode with which the primaries were conducted. They noted that the names of presiding and returning officers appointed by the Local Government Electoral Committee were those of loyal supporters of Biodun Oyebanji.
The aggrieved aspirants called for the cancellation of the primaries and pulled out of the race before lodging their complaints at the Independent National Electoral Commission, the state headquarters of the Nigeria Police, and the Department of State Services.
One of the aspirants Senator Bamidele while speaking to the press alleged that the results of the primary were predetermined and as such was detrimental to the success of the APC at the imminent gubernatorial polls.
“They shouldn’t embarrass APC with this conduct. We want the Committee to stop the process. They have made the result sheets available to Biodun Oyebanji’s supporters to write the results,” the Senator said.
“The outcome of this election is predetermined. We want the process canceled because we don’t want the committee to embarrass our party by forcing us to confront them in the court.”
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Regardless of the complaints, the primary held with Oyebanji who is perceived as the preferred candidate of the current governor, Fayemi emerging as the winner.
Oyebanji would later say that the primary was conducted in a free and fair manner and that pulling out of the race was not the smart option for his fellow contestants as there is an appeal panel in place to handle any possible griaveances that could arise.
At the June 18 polls, Oyebanji, should his win not be successfully contested, would be facing PDP’s Olabisi Kolawole the immediate past State Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.
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