Governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Mohammed Badaru, has said that no governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) boycotted the party’s governorship primary election conducted in Ekiti State.
Badaru, who is the chairman of the Ekiti State APC Governorship Primary Election revealed that there are no governorship aspirants who boycotted the party’s shadow election conducted in the state on Thursday.
Newsflash Nigeria had earlier reported that the lawmaker representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB), former Minister of Works, Dayo Adeyeye and five governorship aspirants on the platform of the APC had withdrawn from the party’s primary election in Ekiti state, a few hours to conduct the shadow election.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, Ekiti governor.
They alleged that Fayemi is making an attempt to foist Biodun Oyebanji, a governorship aspirant, as the party’s governorship standard-bearer in the state.
A statement issued on Thursday by aggrieved aspirants said there is 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 the 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.”
The aspirants asked the party to reconstitute the primary election committees across the state.
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“The seven candidates herein are loyal, faithful and committed party members who are sincerely concerned about the chances of the party in the forthcoming 2022 governorship election where an imposition is allowed to override a Democratic primary election for determining its flag bearer,” they said.
“We request that both the local government election committee and ward election committee that was constituted on the list already in circulation be disbanded and replaced with names that would reinforce internal democracy and uphold the aims and objectives of the party.”
But Governor Badaru said the seven aspirants have not boycotted the party’s governorship primary election conducted in the state.
Rather, he said, the grudge of seven aspirants a day before the primaries was that party member loyal to the governor was chosen to serve as returning officers in various wards and local governments; a complaint that was promptly attended to.
Badaru made this disclosure to newsmen after presenting the official result of the primaries conducted in 166 wards of the state to the Caretaker Committee at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja yesterday, through the Director Organisation of the party, Prof. Usujji Medaner.
The Chairman of the exercise, who was accompanied by the party’s former National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, faulted the claim that some aspirants pulled out. He said nobody boycotted the exercise but only complained about the returning officers; an issue that was attended to.
Asked why seven of the eight aspirants boycotted the exercise, Badaru said: “That is not true. When we landed on the 26th of January, I had meetings with all the aspirants and seven attended out of 8. We discussed the guidelines and we agreed on all the terms.
“What they are alleging probably was that party members loyal to the governor were chosen to serve as returning officers in various wards and local governments.
“They raised that at the meeting. And I asked them, the guidelines are to use the party people to do the job. We cannot hire or take people that are not from the party. But they can also give us 20 persons each from the party people that they believed will do justice to them. And they provided lists of 20 persons who we incorporated into returning officers.
“This was communicated in the early morning to them because they sent their list very late, and that was what even delayed us that night. But we managed to incorporate all the 20 people they each sent to us to participate in the exercise.”
Governor Badaru who said the primary was peacefully conducted in line with the party’s guideline, however, said that results of 11 wards were cancelled due to gross malpractice that characterised the primaries in the affected areas.
“There was no challenge in the whole process. People came out and voted for the candidates they wanted, and it has been relatively peaceful in the 166 wards.
“And when you have issues with only 11 wards, mark you, we have also checked, the number of registered voters in the 11 wards can’t upset the margin of lead by the winner.
“It then means that we declare the election conclusive. Because if we say let us do a re-run, the margin of victory is far beyond the number of cancelled wards.”
He advised the defeated aspirants to join hands with the winner, reminding them that he had told all the aspirants and other stakeholders that power comes from God.
Earlier, Governor Badaru had presented the results of the election in the 16 local government areas of the state to the Caretaker Committee through the party’s Director of Organisation, Prof. Medaner.
Commending the committee, the director said that the exercise was a process and that the party will soon inaugurate an appeal committee to attend to any complaints that may arise from the primaries.
