As Oyebanji Wins Ekiti APC Governorship Primary

Kemi Olaitan reports on the intrigues that characterised the All Progressives Congress governorship primary in Ekiti State won by the immediate past Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji

The All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary in Ekiti State held last Thursday lived up to its billing for intrigues, as the outcome has been disputed by some of the participants. The immediate past Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, emerged flag bearer of the ruling party in the governorship election scheduled for June 18. Other aspirants were Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, former Minister of State, Works, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, House of Representatives member, Hon. Femi Bamisile, Bamidele Faparusi, Kayode Ojo, Olusola Afolabi and Demola Popoola.

The verbal exchanges between members of the party sympathetic to Oyebanji who many believed was the annointed candidate of Governor Kayode Fayemi and those alleging a plot to manipulate the exercise before the primary had raised apprehension on integrity and level-playing field, as well as the role of the APC national secretariat in Abuja that was meant to oversee the conduct of the primary.

The Chairman, APC Governorship Primary Electoral Committee for Ekiti and Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru, doused this tension after a stakeholders’ meeting put together by the committee and attended by the aspirants and party leaders, assuring that the committee would be fair to all as there was a guideline already in place to achieve this. He said, “The party has a guideline in the conduct of direct primary, which is the accreditation of the party members after getting their voter cards and party membership slips carrying their photographs and their names. After this is done, the members would now queue behind the agents of their preferred aspirants in each ward before counting. It is whatever that is counted across the wards and acceptable to all agents that will be collated and announced accordingly.”

Spurred on by the pledge to do what is right by Badaru, the teeming members trooped out in large numbers to the 177 wards to elect the party’ governorship candidate. But the enthusiasm was to be jolted by rumour early in the day that the primary has been cancelled which was quickly denied by the governorship primary electoral committee in a statement titled, “Ekiti State APC Primary Election is not Postponed.”

The statement signed by the Secretary of the Committee, Rt. Hon. Victor Olabimtan, read, “The governorship primary election of Ekiti State fixed by the National body of the APC slated for today, Thursday January 27, 2022 will hold as scheduled in all the 177 wards of Ekiti State. 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. It is an incontrovertible fact that every member of the appointed Electoral Officers for today’s primary election is a bonafide member of Ekiti State APC.

“You will recall that during the stakeholders’ meeting between the Committee, aspirants and others yesterday, this issue was raised and exhaustively discussed, and to reinforce confidence in the process, it was agreed that each aspirant should nominate 20 people each to be part of the process. All the aspirants took advantage of this window of opportunity and submitted the list of their nominated electoral officers.

“All the submitted lists have been added to the existing arrangement, assigned into various wards and local governments. They have all been incorporated.We hereby call on all well-meaning APC members in Ekiti State to go to their respective wards to fully exercise their voting right without fear or intimidation. The adopted option A4 is the most transparent form of election.

“Once again, the Ekiti State APC governorship primary election is holding as scheduled.”

The primary, however, commenced as early as 8:15 am with seamless accreditation of card-carrying members of the party by the ward electoral committee in various wards in towns like Ado-Ekiti, Ikere, Ikogosi, Oye, Igbemo and Ifaki, was relatively peaceful amidst heavy security.The APC members were seen displaying their party membership and voter cards during accreditations and later queued behind posters of their preferred choice despite the scorching sun with the election concluded in most polling units before the official closing time of 2:00 pm.

The primary election was to run into another hiccup when seven of the aspirants led by Senator Bamidele, announced their withdrawal, alleging that the primary election committee is made up of loyalists of Fayemi and that the governor is attempting to impose Oyebanji, as the Ekiti APC governorship candidate. The aggrieved aspirants who marched on the State headquarters of the Department of the State Security Service (DSS) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to lodge their complaints, also alleged that the state officials hijacked the process and that the governorship primary panel compromised the process.

A statement by the aspirants read, “The seven aspirants herein received with rude shock and dismay the purported list of local government election committee and ward election committee made up solely by party members and political appointees that had before now openly endorsed the candidacy of Biodun Oyebanji the immediate past secretary to the state government.

“It is on record that the government of Governor Kayode Fayemi has given its unwavering support to the candidacy of Biodun Oyebanji, it is common knowledge that the Governor and most appointees of the governor are openly rooting for and supporting Biodun Oyebanji’s aspiration to become the flag bearer of our great party.

“The seven candidates herein are loyal, faithful and committed party members who are sincerely concerned about the chances of the party in the forthcoming 2022 governorship election where an imposition is allowed to override a democratic primary election for determining its flag bearer.

“We request that both the local government election committee and ward election committee that were constituted on the list already in circulation be disbanded and replaced with names that would reinforce internal democracy and uphold the aims and objectives of the party.”

Bamidele who spoke on behalf of other six aspirants, said their decision to stay away from the poll was borne out of a lack of level-playing ground for all aspirants, passing a vote of no confidence in Badaru. He said, “We signed up for direct primary, that is seven of the aspirants, in the interest of the public, but the processes have been hijacked by officials of state government from the election panel.When they said that the results would be written, we thought it was just a joke because we thought that the people in government in the state were civilised to do that.

“However, what we are witnessing now is that sensitive election materials that were meant to be distributed at the party secretariat this morning in the presence of aspirants and agents, were distributed between 10pm 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 1am 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 demand for justice, we demand fairness, we demand credible primary election to be conducted in Ekiti State. That is the reason for the protests.”

This however did not stop the primary election as party members from all over the state thronged the secretariat of the party located at the Ajilosun area of the state capital, Ado Ekiti, waiting for a winner to emerge. This was not to be long as Governor Badaru at 7.35 pm led other members of the committee into the secretariat for the commencement of announcement of results from the 16 local government areas of the state which started with Efon local government and ended with Ise Orun.

With the collation of the results concluded, Governor Badaru at 9.30 pm announced Oyebanji as the winner of the primary election having scored 101, 703 votes while Bamidele got 760 votes, Adeyeye scored 691 votes and Ojo polled 767 votes. He added that Bamisile polled 400 votes, Faparusi garnered 376 votes, Popoola scored 239, while Afolabi scored 47 votes. According to him, out of the total number of 183,000 registered voters of the party members, the total number of accredited voters was 107,877 and the total votes cast was 104,983.

Badaru said the exercise complied with the party’s guidelines and principles of democracy as all the aspirants agreed on the mode of primary (direct), stating that the aspirants were allowed to bring 20 persons each to be part of the Returning Officers. His words: “We all agreed on the mode of this primary. Seven of them out of eight who were at the meeting held with aspirants agreed on so many issues including the Returning Officers. We agreed for them to submit 20 names.Most of them submitted names. I am surprised to hear that they were not consulted. Primaries took place in all the 177 wards except some that were having a problem. Primaries were conducted freely and fairly. I got reports from all the 177 wards.”

Oyebanji while extending hands of fellowship to the aggrieved aspirants in his acceptance speech titled, “This is a win for all”, which he read late that night, said he needs their support for the task ahead, thanking Fayemi, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, party leaders and supporters across the state, for the opportunity given to him to be the party’s standard bearer in the coming election. He assured of his commitment to continue to sell his candidacy based on track record of competence, compassion, character and vision to move Ekiti State forward.

He said, “I am grateful to God and to all stakeholders that the proceedings went well, and we have arrived at a collective decision.
This decision you have made – to give me the honour of bearing the flag of our party as your gubernatorial candidate is one that I do not take lightly at all. I am truly thankful for this privilege of being chosen from amongst equally qualified aspirants who led very rigorous campaigns across the State. I thank you all my fathers, my mothers, my brothers, and my sisters; from across all the wards in Ekiti State for this privilege. I consider this a win for us all, and a win for participatory democracy, especially because all party members were given the opportunity to speak with their votes on account of the modified Open Secret Ballot System (Option A4), also known as Direct Primaries that was adopted.

“I submit to the voice of the people, and I submit to the voice of God who rules in the affairs of people – for there is no power but of God, and powers that be are ordained of God. I humbly accept the confidence you have reposed in me to bear our collective mandate.
To my fellow aspirants, all of you worthy Ekiti sons, I salute your courage of conviction and your passion for the upliftment of our dear State. Your participation in the process has served to strengthen our party, through the mobilisation of many voices. During contests such as this, tensions are understandably high, and tempers rise in all quarters. This is all normal in the course of democratic expression. I hereby promise my fellow aspirants that together, we will work towards victory and a bright future for our people.

“I will be reaching out personally to seek audience with everyone of you in the coming days. I want to listen to you, so that together we can fit in our respective parts of the big picture and run a wholesome campaign that connects with the hearts and minds of our people. According to the popular Yoruba proverb – agbajo owo la fi ns’oya, ajoji owo kan ko gberu d’ori, and the popular maxim –
“together, we are greater than the sum of our individual parts” – without a doubt the undertaking ahead of us must be a collective one, and we need everybody. I therefore humbly ask for your support as we begin the task of campaigning for the Saturday, June 18, 2022 general election. We have a huge mission ahead of us to retain the governance of our dear state under our great party, and to ensure the continuity of our progressive programmes and policies as established by our leaders.