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The immediate past Secretary to Ekiti State Government, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji has been declared winner of the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State.
The Chairman of the committee for the primary election, Governor Mohammed Badaru of Jigawa State announced that Oyebanji polled 101,703 votes to defeat seven other contestants.
Baderu made the declaration at the State Collation Centre, APC party Secretariat, located at Ajilosun, Ado-Ekiti, the state capital.
A total number of 107,877 thousand voters were accredited for the exercise out of which 104,983 voted.
Though the seven other aspirants with their supporters had in the morning thronged the party secretariat to protest irregularities in the conduct of the party primary, the primary still held at most of the designated wards.
The aggrieved aspirants claimed the process was manipulated to favour Mr. Oyebanji who is tagged Governor Kayode Fayemi’s preferred choice by distributing voting materials earlier than scheduled among other grounds.
Oyebanji polled101,703 votes, according to the result announced by Governor Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa state.
The other candidates who earlier announced their withdrawal from the race still won token votes.
Demola Popoola who did not join the protest won just 239 votes.
Bamidele Faparusi got 376 votes, Kayode Ojo 767, Opeyemi Bamidele 760, Dayo Adeyeye 691.
Femi Bamisile got 400 votes, Toyin Afolabi 47 votes.
Baderu said Oyebanji pulled 101,703 out of the total number of votes cast.
Baderu made the declaration 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,” Baderu said.
He added that Ekiti APC had 183,560 registered members, 107,877 members were accredited and total votes cast was 104,983.
The chairman expressed surprise at the allegations by some aspirants that they were not consulted, adding 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 was the former secretary to the Ekiti State government.
His candidacy enjoyed the strong backing of the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi.
The other major party in the state, the PDP picked Bisi Kolawole, a former chairman as its flag bearer
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