Ekiti 2022: Bamidele, 6 others withdraw from APC primary, Crisis over the conduct of governorship primary of All Progressives Congress for the Ekiti June 2020 governorship election worsened on Thursday with seven aspirants announcing their withdrawal from the exercise over alleged manipulation of the process to favour Biodun Oyebanji, who is believed to have the support of Governor Kayode Fayemi.
About 183,000 members of the party are expected to select one out of the eight aspirants for the governorship ticket.
In a statement on Thursday, the 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 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.
Ekiti 2022: Bamidele, 6 others withdraw from APC primary
“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.
“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 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.”
[…] “All what we need now is how peace will reign in our community, not the issues of Olu, we don’t need Olu for now. The person that the Deji of Akure wanted to install as Olu is a son to Chief Mrs Taye Ologede who hails from Ekiti and the man is not our family member. He is from Ikogosi Ekiti. He cannot come from Ekiti and become an Olu here, we have a person already that can be our Olu here.” “We now expect our traditional ruler, the Deji of Akure, to suspend any process on this issue till we settle the crisis we have in our community.” […]