The immediate past Secretary to the Ekiti State government, Biodun Oyebanji, has been declared winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election held in the state on Thursday.
Oyebanji, from Ikogosi-Ekiti, in the central senatorial district and believed to be Governor Kayode Fayemi’s preferred aspirant, was declared the winner with 101,703 votes to defeat the other seven aspirants who had earlier protested against the process and called for its cancellation.
The chairman of the APC primary election committee and governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru, said the exercise which took place across the 177 wards in the state was peaceful, transparent and credible.
Results of other aspirants are, Dayo Adeyeye, 691 votes; Bamidele Faparusi, 376; Femi Bamisile, 400; Opeyemi Bamidele, 760; Demola Popoola, 239; Olushola Afolabi, 47 and Kayode Ojo, 767 votes.
Oyebanji will be the ruling party’s flagbearer in the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti.
Meanwhile, REPORTERS AT LARGE earlier reported that seven governorship aspirants of the APC on Thursday morning staged a protest at the party secretariat in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital calling for the cancellation of the scheduled direct primary election over alleged compromise.
The aspirants, Opeyemi Bamidele, Dayo Adeyeye, Femi Bamisile, Kayode Ojo, Bamidele Faparusi, Olusola Afolabi and Demola Popoola told journalists that the primary election committee has allegedly compromised the process by handing over result sheets to loyalists of Governor Kayode Fayemi to the advantage of one of the aspirants, Biodun Oyebanji across the 16 local government areas.
