Ekiti: Biodun Oyebanji Emerges As Candidate Of The APC

A former Secretary to the Ekiti State Government, Biodun Oyebanji, has emerged the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State.

Mr. Oyebanji emerged victorious with 101,703 votes, defeating seven other contestants in the APC Primaries conducted yesterday.

Breakdown of the votes showed that Bamidele Faparusi polled a total of  376 votes, Ojo Kayode had 767 votes, Opeyemi Bamidele, a serving Senator had  760 votes, Dayo Adeyeye, a former lawmaker polled 691 votes, Femi Bamisile polled 400 votes,.

Others are Toyin Afolabi, who polled  47 votes and Demola Popoola,  who scored 239 votes.

Before the exercise, seven governorship aspirants had withdrawn from the party’s primary election. The aspirants — Kayode Mojo, Demola Popoola, Femi Bamisile, Bamidele Faparusi, Dayo Adeyeye, Opeyemi Bamidele and Afolabi Oluwasola — alleged that the primary election committee is made up of loyalists of Kayode Fayemi, the Ekiti Governor.

They alleged that Fayemi was making an attempt to foist Biodun Oyebanji, a governorship aspirant, as the party’s governorship standard-bearer in the state.

In a statement on Thursday, the aspirants said there was no way the exercise will be fair with the calibre of people sitting on the primary election committees.

“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,” they said.

“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.

“What is more disturbing is the fact that a simple glance at the names of the persons appointed as members of both committees would reveal that it is made up of appointees of government who are all supporters of a candidate in the primary election they are appointed to superintend on.”