ABIODUN NEJO writes that the dusts raised by the Ekiti State governorship primaries of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress which held on Wednesday and Thursday respectively have yet to settle
Although the candidates who have emerged from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and the ruling All Progressives Congress are expected to slug it out alongside 16 other political parties in the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State, the crises thrown up by the parties’ primaries would be around for some time.
While the former chairman of the party in the state, Bisi Kolawole, emerged as the PDP candidate, a former secretary to the state government, Biodun Oyebanji, is the APC candidate. Both parties went into the primaries with unresolved issues which many observers predicted might create post-primary rancour.
While 12 aspirants contested the PDP ticket, eight were billed to contest the APC ticket until seven pulled out.
In PDP, Olujimi pulls out, alleges compromise
The tension, which rose in the PDP recently in the build up to the primary over the ad hoc delegates’ congress, renewed the acrimony between the two groups in the party and among aspirants. Efforts of the Iyorchia Ayu-led National Working Committee to bring the two groups – the Osoko Political Assembly led by former governor Ayodele Fayose and the Repositioning Group led by Senator Biodun Olujimi, together appeared to be yielding fruits.
The move, among others, was with a view to reconcile the two divisions as part of efforts to ensure PDP’s return to the Oke Ayoba Government House, Ado Ekiti through winning the June 18 governorship election.
The two groups among other things resolved to work together for a hitch-free ad hoc delegates’ congress on January 15 so that the emergence of the three ad hoc delegates per ward to vote in the primary would be acceptable to all sides.
Before the conclusion of the congress, however, the aspirants cried foul, alleging that Fayose had manipulated the process and hijacked the exercise to favour his preferred aspirant, Kolawole. The accompanying protest pitched Fayose against almost all the aspirants, including former governor Segun Oni; former deputy governor, Prof Kolapo Olusola-Eleka; Olujimi; former House of Representatives member, Wale Aribisala; former senatorial aspirant, Lateef Ajijola, and former governorship aspirant, Yinka Akerele.
This propelled the NWC to intervene to save the party. It therefore took critical decisions, including the nullification of the contentious ad hoc delegates’ congress and directed that only automatic and statutory delegates would vote in the primary. With that, the calculation among members and political watchers was that the primaries would be a keen contest if all the other aspirants, who had jointly fought the battle against the ad hoc congress, could come together and present a common aspirant.
But this did not happen as the aspirants went to the primaries on Wednesday still canvassing for votes from the delegates individually. The first indication that all was not well with the primary as far as the majority of the aspirants were concerned showed when some delegates, despite the heavy presence of security men deployed for the exercise, faulted the list being used by the Electoral Committee, chaired by Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel.
There was noisy disturbance as some delegates raised objection to some names on the list, but this was soon settled as the accreditation process went on from one local government to the other. Emmanuel, who was not unaware of the intrigues among the delegates and aspirants in the build-up to the exercise, told the delegates on arrival, “There is no need for Local Organising Committee. I came with enough men. I don’t want all these biases. We are going to hold very simple and straightforward election.
“We are neutral. Everything is going to be very orderly. I am not in for all those intrigues that you people are trying to do here. Everybody must behave well. You must maintain discipline. Everything is going to be transparent. I have the authentic delegates’ list here. You can see it is stamped by the NWC.”
The big blow, however, came when Olujimi, who had come to the Pastoral Centre, venue of the accreditation, expressed disappointment with her discovery and announced that she was pulling out of the primaries, saying the system had been compromised in favour of Kolawole.
The aggrieved senator, who alleged that delegates for four of the six local governments in her senatorial district had been given to Fayose’s group, added that only 12 delegates could vote in her local government, Ekiti East, while only 10 could vote in Gbonyin LGA, making a total of 22 where no fewer than 155 ought to have voted.
She said, “I thought it was very unfair, unjust and unethical. It was disenfranchising me because of my gender or because the party feels I have not done enough for it. Going forward from there would mean that I am condoning what is wrong. So, I thought my best was just to pull out and I pulled out. I did not step down. They can continue with it; I will also internalise the problem, there will be some introspection, then I will take a decision. Our delegates can vote for aspirants of their choice and then we meet afterwards and take a decision.”
Olujimi added, “I had a lengthy discussion with Governor Emmanuel and he too was not aware until he brought out the list of Ekiti East Local Government and saw ‘undecided, yet to be decided’ etc on three sheets of paper with only 12 names that could vote on the top sheet. On the other one (for Gbonyin Local Government), he saw 10 names that could vote.”
However, after the completion of the voting process, Emmanuel announced Kolawole as the winner, polling 671 votes to defeat his closest rival, former governor Oni, who scored 330 votes. Other aspirants – Olusola scored 93 votes; Aribisala garnered 56 votes; Adaramodu scored 10 votes; Ogunsakin scored six votes and Olujimi, who had earlier pulled out of the exercise, secured two votes.
In his acceptance speech, Kolawole explained that all of them were winners, saying, “The result has been very clear, the process has been very clear, credible and it makes everybody happy. I am very sure members of our party and our leaders are very happy because we have promised that once the process is very open and fair to all, they will all accept the result.”
Kolawole, while reacting to Olujimi’s action, said, “Yes, Senator Olujimi pulled out. You don’t expect everybody to go into the final race; it is at her discretion to have done that. I don’t think it was out of annoyance; she must have considered some other factors, It is better to, by style, avoid being embarrassed at the venue.”
Although Oni, in his reaction, said, “We are going to fight together to make him (Kolawole) governor. We are satisfied with the process and no one is complaining,” a statement from his campaign organisation on Thursday evening rejected the result of the primary.
In the statement titled, ‘Ekiti PDP gov primary: Segun Oni’s supporters reject results, say many delegates disenfranchised’, the Director-General, Segun Oni Campaign Organisation, Yemi Arokodare, stated that it rejected the results “which returned Kolawole”.
Arokodare alleged that “the delegates’ register was mutilated and many delegates’ names were missing from the register, while 32 automatic delegates who were accredited were not given tag and were not allowed to vote. Governor Emmanuel allegedly threatened to arrest and lock up all of the delegates if any of them should come into the hall. He deliberately allowed Fayose, who heads a faction of Ekiti State PDP, to sit in the hall even after he had voted, against the rules earlier announced by Governor Emmanuel”.
But the PDP state Publicity Secretary, Raphael Adeyanju, who said the primary was credible, stated that the party would immediately begin the process of genuine reconciliation so the party could go into the election as a united force. Adeyanju said, “The party will immediately commence reconciliation process. The contest (primary) is a family affair and all knew that only one person can emerge as the party’s candidate. Our chances are very bright in the June 18 election; there is an unpopular party in power which has made our job very simple.”
In APC, seven aspirants protest, seek suspension of primary
As of Wednesday evening, all appeared well in the APC as the Chairman of the party’s Primary Election Committee for Ekiti State and Governor of Jigawa State, Abubakar Badaru, met with party stakeholders and aspirants preparatory for the exercise on Thursday.
But things took a different twist on Thursday morning when seven of the eight aspirants for the election protested against the list of local government electoral committee and those of ward electoral committees in which members were to serve allegedly as electoral officers for the exercise, saying the members were supporters of one of the aspirants, Oyebanji.
The aggrieved aspirants are Senator Opeyemi Bamidele; former Minister of State for Works, Senator Dayo Adeyeye; House of Representatives member, Femi Bamisile; former House of Representatives member, Bamidele Faparusi; former governorship aspirant, Kayode Ojo; aviation expert, Demola Popoola; and Oluwasola Afolabi.
The aspirants, alongside their supporters stormed the state APC Secretariat where they addressed their supporters before they moved to the state headquarters of the Nigeria Police, Independent National Electoral Commission and the Department of State Services to air their grievances.
They urged the APC leadership to compel the Badaru-led committee to suspend the process in the interest of the party, saying, “Members of the Local Government Committee who are to serve as returning officers are supporters and campaigners for an aspirant, Biodun Oyebanji, who was anointed by Governor Kayode Fayemi”.
Bamidele, who spoke on behalf of others, said, “We want the committee to stop the process. They have made the result sheets available to Biodun Oyebanji’s supporters to write the results. It is also embarrassing and unfortunate that only the government appointees and those loyal to Governor (Kayode) Fayemi and Oyebanji were appointed as electoral officers. The outcome of this election is predetermined. We want the process cancelled because we don’t want the committee to embarrass our party by forcing us to confront them in court.”
Also speaking, Adeyeye and Faparusi, condemned the modality adopted by the committee to conduct the primary, alleging that it was laced with fraud.
But the committee, in a statement by its Secretary, Victor Olabimtan, titled ‘Ekiti State APC primary election is not postponed’, stated that the exercise would hold “as scheduled in all the 177 wards in Ekiti State.
“The Ekiti State APC Governorship Primary Election Committee wishes to assure the general public that a level playing field that will guarantee fairness, openness and transparency has been adopted by the committee. It is an incontrovertible fact that every appointed electoral officer for today’s (Thursday) primary election is a bona fide member of Ekiti State APC.
“You will recall that during the stakeholders’ meeting between the committee, aspirants and others yesterday (Wednesday), this issue was raised and was exhaustively discussed, and to reinforce confidence in the process, it was agreed that each aspirant should nominate 20 people each to be part of the process. All the aspirants took advantage of this window of opportunity and submitted the list of their nominated electoral officers.
“All the submitted lists have been added to the existing arrangement, assigned into various wards and local governments. They have all been incorporated,” the committee’s secretary said.
The primaries, however, held and results were announced later by Badaru, who declared Oyebanji winner of the primary election. He said the former SSG scored 101,703 votes to defeat other aspirants.
Badaru said that former governorship aspirant, Ojo, got 767 votes; Bamidele scored 760 votes; Adeyeye secured 691 votes; Bamisile scored 400 votes; Faparusi garnered 376 votes; Popoola got 239 votes; and Afolabi scored 47 votes.
The Jigawa State governor, who said the election followed the party’s guidelines, said he had not received any official complaint from any aspirant.
Oyebanji, in his acceptance speech as the party’s candidate, said he would soon begin the process of reconciliation with the aggrieved members, saying, “I accept the confidence you have reposed in me to bear our collective mandate.”
He told the aspirants, “I will be reaching out personally to seek audience with every one of you in the coming days. I want to listen to you so that together we can fit in our respective parts of the big picture and run a wholesome campaign that connects with the hearts and minds of our people.
“All of you worthy Ekiti sons, I salute your courage of conviction and your passion for the uplifting of our dear state. Your participation in the process has served to strengthen our party, through the mobilisation of many voices. I hereby promise my fellow aspirants that together, we will work towards victory and a bright future for our people.”
Oyebanji, who stated earlier that the process was free, fair and transparent, said the APC appeal panel would handle any controversial issue surrounding the conduct of the election.
But an aspirant, Ojo, who said on Friday that there was no election and that the results announced were “fake and concocted from people’s bedroom”, added, “Badaru did not come to Ekiti to conduct credible election; he was here to validate fraud.
“What the Badaru-led APC committee did with the alleged shoddy conduct of the governorship primary in Ekiti was a complete disgrace to the APC. What you witnessed in Ekiti on Thursday and the day preceding the election showed the election had been compromised even before it was conducted.
“We have resolved to stand against this injustice. We are seeking every peaceful avenue to ensure that we have a process that would produce a credible candidate in Ekiti. It will be a disaster to APC to approach this election in this disgraceful manner.
“APC leadership and the Presidency must intervene in this matter before APC crumbles in Ekiti. It is sad that they even voided votes in a direct primary where people were counted. This is to tell you the level of their fraud,” Ojo said.
However, the APC State Publicity Secretary, Segun Dipe, who dismissed the aggrieved aspirants’ allegation that Oyebanji’s supporters were made electoral officers, said Oyebanji’s victory was an indication of his popularity among APC members, adding, “If knowing Oyebanji is what they mean by his supporters, what can anybody do about that?”
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