The last might not have been heard about the Ekiti primary elections conducted by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Thursday, January 27, as two of the aggrieved Ekiti governorship aspirants in the election have vowed to exhaust all internal and external mechanisms in establishing that the party did not any primary elections in the state.
The aggrieved aspirants are the lawmaker representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele and member House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Bamisile.
The duo alleged that Governor Abubakar Badaru-led Primary Committee of the party, conspired with the Governor of the Ekiti, Kayode Fayemi to allot votes that were never casted during the primary elections.
The duo while speaking during a joint press conference Wednesday in Ado-Ekiti, vowed to take the matter to the court should the party at the National level fails to overrule the so-called election that declared the immediate past Secretary to the state Government(SSG), Biodun Oyebanji, as the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
Recall that seven aspirants on the platform of the APC, hours into the primary election withdrew their candidacy, citing allegations that the Governor of the state had conspired with some persons to impose his former Secretary to the State Government as the Ekiti APC governorship candidate.
The seven also called for the postponement of the primary election, in other to provide a level playing field for everyone.
Speaking on Wednesday, Bamisile further maintained that election never held across the 16 local government areas of the state, alleging that Badaru-led committee hijacked the process by distributing materials a day before election, changed collation centres, and arbitrarily appointed those that would do Oyebanji’s biddings to compromise the process and subvert the will of the people.
In his words, “None of us is contemplating defection from APC, this is our party. We have contributed so much to it from the days of Alliance for Democracy (AD).
“All we are asking for is justice. We are waiting for the national leadership to take the right step and this must start by them submitting a dummy name to INEC and use the two weeks window available as contained in the Electoral Act to do what is right in this matter. I can be quoted that the name that will be taken to INEC in Abuja will be dummy name, so those celebrating should do that in moderation.
“If it is part of their calculation that we will leave the party for them, they are making a mistake. We are still waiting for the national leadership on our collective position. We have filed petitions and if they endorsed that impunity they called primary, it will be clear that we have exhausted all the internal mechanisms for crisis resolution and we can from there return to the court of law.
“The Ad-hoc staff were to be adopted for the conduct of the poll because it was assumed that every member in Ekiti would have taken position. When you talk of ad-hoc staff, it means those that would be brought from the national secretariat of the party or APC members from other states.
“The process was totally hijacked by Badaru committee. What we saw was seeing people who were campaign managers, sponsors and promoters of Biodun Oyebanji being appointed and saddled with the responsibility of being Returning Officers in the 16 local governments.
“The election materials were to be distributed early on Thursday before the start of the primary and to be distributed in the presence of agents of aspirants, INEC, security chiefs and monitoring teams. But materials, both sensitive and non-sensitive, were distributed in previous night. We got calls that as of 11pm, Governor Badaru had handed over materials to Returning Officers from the 16 councils.
“Out of the 16 Returning Officers appointed, 11 of them were with Oyebanji when he collected his expression of interest form at the party secretariat in Abuja.
“In several of our local governments, the venues of our collation centres were changed. At the appropriate time, we will give evidence that will put all of us in public court and that will be useful in the court of law. Available INEC report shows that there was no voting, no valid primary election in Ekiti.
“One thing I can assure you is that the last is yet to be heard about the Ekiti governorship primary. We will not stop at anything seeking for justice. We should take every step that will challenge this political misbehaviour from repeating itself in future, so that politicians can learn how to take caution and be civil.
“Majority of Ekiti people are seriously disappointed with the way the election went. I thought the election would be free and fair, because I thought Dr. Kayode Fayemi won’t get involved in things that will deprive the party of free and fair process and that he will provide for a level playing ground. Only history will judge me whether I was right or not. I thought I knew him, but I didn’t know that I did not know him quite enough,” the lawmaker added.
Bamisile, on his part threatened to teach APC a lesson it will never forget.
“This is our state, we are fighting for what we believe in, this is a democracy where everyone has the right to support whoever he likes. The police shouldn’t threaten us with arrest. Nobody can stop this, the only thing they can do to stop us is to allow justice in our party.
“Whatever votes they have allotted to us will reflect on the day of election. We won’t leave this party, but not leaving does not mean that APC will not be taught a lesson. This is not a threat, but a prophesy that will come to pass. We are not going anywhere, but if the party doesn’t do it right, they will be taught a lesson they will never forget,” he said.
