Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, the immediate past Secretary to Ekiti State government, has emerged as the winner of the Ekiti State governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress held on Thursday.
According to the Chairman of the committee for the primary election, Governor Mohammed Badaru of Jigawa State, Oyebanji won after polling a total vote of 101,703 to defeat seven other contestants.
A total number of 107,877 thousand voters were accredited for the exercise out of which 104,983 voted.
FirstNews reported that seven other aspirants declared their withdrawal from the race earlier in the morning and called for the cancellation of the exercise to avoid the APC in the state being doomed.
They had accused Governor Kayode Fayemi of plots to manipulate the exercise for Oyebanji, who according to them is the governor’s anointed candidate.
Among other things, they claimed that voting materials were distributed earlier than scheduled to allegedly favour Oyebanji.
Amid all that, the primary still held at most of the designated wards.
Meanwhile, Oyebanji had earlier in the day, described the process of the exercise as flawless and debunked claims that he’s the closest and most favoured by the governor among all the aspirants.
Oyebanji’s major challenger for the state governorship seat will be Bisi Kolawole, who earlier on Wednesday emerged as the winner of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party governorship primary held in Ado-Ekiti.
Kolawole polled 671 votes to defeat his close rival, former ‘Governor’ Segun Oni, who got 330 votes out of a total of 1200 delegates that participated in the primary.
