2023: Senatorial ticket divides Ekiti APC

The division is gradually hitting the Ekiti State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ahead of the 2023 polls, as members are now intensifying lobbies to outdo themselves on the zoning of the ticket by the party leadership.

The division in the party is said to be more remarkable in Ekiti Central Senatorial District.

Reacting to the separation, the Coordinator of Ado Ekiti Frontiers (AEF), Mr T.S. Salami, said in a statement yesterday, that the party should not toy with its senatorial ticket, and urged it to field a candidate from Ado Ekiti capital city in order for the party to be victorious in the coming National Assembly elections.

But another splinter group, the Ekiti Central Progressive Alliance (ECPA), maintained that the current occupant of the seat, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, who is from Irepodun/Ifelodun Local Government, remained the best for the job, and should be given the right of first refusal for the party to win the June 18 poll.

The Ekiti Central Senatorial District is comprised of Ado Ekiti, Irepodun/Ifelodun, Ijero, Efon and Ekiti West Local Government Areas.

Espousing the reasons for the demand in a statement on Saturday, Salami, opined that allowing Ado Ekiti to produce the party’s senatorial candidate would boost its chances in the June 18, 2022, governorship election and the general elections scheduled for 2023.

Salami urged the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, and other party stakeholders to consider allowing the senatorial candidate to come from Ado Ekiti Local Government.

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He said: “Ado Ekiti had produced the likes of Professor Banji Akintoye as a senator and Hon. Gabriel Falayi, as a member of the House of Representatives in 1979, hence we are not asking for too much if we are pleading for a senatorial seat in 2022.

“We shall continue to be peaceful and patient to demand our rightful positions as a community that hosts the entire Ekiti. The voting strength of Ado Ekiti secured victory for our party in 2018 because we were able to bridge the gap of the 2014 governorship election to the minimum level.

“For instance, in the 2014 governorship election, APC polled 13,927, while PDP scored 41,169 with a wide margin of 27,242, but in the 2018 gubernatorial election, we reduced the wide margin to 4,699, which actually gave victory to our party.”

But in his dissenting view, ECPA Chairman, Hon. Mayowa Olowoyeye, said that the party needed Bamidele’s popularity to win the June 18 governorship poll.

Olowoyeye said that the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Segun Oni, is posing a serious threat to APC’s candidate, Mr Biodun Oyebanji.

He said: “We are not in any way against Ado Ekiti producing the senator in our zone, but as we are today, Senator Bamidele should be a natural choice for APC on account of his experience as a ranking senator and popularity in the district.

“Except APC is deceiving itself, the SDP is gaining grounds on daily basis in Ekiti and threatening our chances of winning the election. So, we need to give our ticket to a popular person to be able to galvanise support for our party.

“Again, ranking senators always command respect in the Senate, so we need people with experience to be able to give Ekiti a strong voice and that person is Senator Bamidele.

“In the last election, I mean 2019 elections, Senator Bamidele scored over 94,000 votes in Ekiti Central Senatorial Election. This confirmed how popular he is. He is also the Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary as a first termer and if given the ticket and he wins, he will go higher and give Ekiti a better representation.”

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