A former Ekiti State Deputy Governor, Chief Bisi Omoyeni, has been adopted as the consensus candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the July 14 governorship poll.
Omoyeni was the deputy governor to Governor Ayo Fayose in his first term, where he served only for three months before resigning to assume the position of Group Managing Director of Wema Bank Plc.
He was formerly in the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) before moving to SDP, with his supporters citing cases of alleged manipulation of delegates’ list in favour of Fayose’s deputy, Prof. Kolapo Olusola where both Omoyeni and Olusola hails from Ikere Ekiti.
Speaking on behalf of the party leaders in Ado Ekiti on Friday, the pioneer chairman of SDP in the state, Engr. Ayo Adekola said they decided to pick him based on his antecedents and for the fact that he was from the south senatorial district.
Adekola, who was the SDP governorship candidate in 2014, added that it had always been the wish of the founding fathers of the party in the state that the south produced the governor even before now.
He said they decided to make Omoyeni the governorship candidate because he has the capacity to implement the policies and programmes of the party, adding that “this will also make the April 14 primary a rancor-free process”.
He added: “In 2014, Dr. Kola Adeyina from Ikere Ekiti, where Omoyeni hails from was our candidate. But he fell sick and was taken overseas and he used my name as a stop gap. Few days to the election, he called me and said I should be made the candidate.”
