Cancel Outcome of Ekiti APC Primary to Avoid Zamfara Saga, Aspirants Tell CECPC

•Accuse Badaru’s committee of comprise, fraud •Group commends aspirants for peaceful process

Victor Ogunje

The governorship aspirants of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State yesterday faulted the outcome of the just concluded primary election, noting that the credibility of the process was shamefully compromised and manipulated.
Consequently, the aspirants asked the APC Caretaker/Extra-ordinary National Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) to cancel the outcome of the process to avoid what happened in Zamfara State in 2019.

In separate interviews with THISDAY yesterday, the aspirants comprising Senator Dayo Adeyeye, Mr. Kayode Ojo, Mr. Bamidele Faparusi and Hon. Femi Bamisile all rejected the outcome of the process, claiming that it fell short of minimum democratic standards.

Seven governorship aspirants had controversially withdrawn from the contest on the ground that Ekiti APC in collaboration with the state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi allegedly appointed their political associates to serve as the presiding and returning officers of the primary election.

Contingent upon this allegation, the aspirants had registered their concerns with the 2022 Ekiti State Gubernatorial Primary Election Committee under the chairmanship of Jigawa State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru, but the committee failed to address their concerns.

Despite their withdrawal from the process, the Badaru committee conducted the primary election amid allegations of compromise and manipulation by all aspirants except Fayemi’s anointed candidate and the immediate past Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji.

The committee eventually announced Oyebanji the winner of the contest.

Responding to Oyebanji’s emergence yesterday, Adeyeye said the party had compounded the problem, warning that the APC “stand a chance of losing the June 18 poll with the shabby way it conducted the primary.”

Adeyeye, a pro-Ekiti South advocate, said he never imagined a party that had progressivism as its mantra could accept the outcome of such a primary election.

He warned that such an election would generate furore and ridicule the party in the eyes of the public, believing that a ruling party “is supposed to be a pacesetter.”

He claimed that the whole process was “a sham. In fact, it was a disgrace to our collective integrity. How could a party allocate votes to aspirants that had withdrawn from a race?

“They even voided votes even when it was claimed that Option A4 was adopted. Did they make a mistake when counting the people that queued or what happened? That was nothing but a fraud.

“The best thing for our party to do is to call for a better way to select our candidate by annulling the outcome of that election that was widely regarded as a charade, where only those loyal to the governor were appointed the Returning officers.”

Faulting the entire process, Bamisile observed that the party should not engage in any act that could throw up a repeat of the Zamfara saga in Ekiti, by allowing the primary to stand against the wish of the majority.

Bamisile, a serving member of the House of Representatives, added that the APC “must learn how to do things right. I am not one politician that chases shadow.

“If I had lost honestly and transparently, I would have congratulated the winner and moved on. But this cannot happen under this context where a candidate was foisted on all of us.

“This is an injustice. We will fight it to a logical conclusion. APC is one party I have invested all my resources, both intellectual and financial, building it to bring the dividends of democracy to the people.

“We owe it a duty that things must be done right. This is a must and not an option in our party. So, I reject the outcome of this primary wholeheartedly,” Bamisile said with dismay.

Describing the process as antithetical to the tenets of democracy and principle of fairness, another governorship aspirant, Faparusi alleged that Badaru led the committee that brazenly perpetrated fraud against other aspirants.

Faparusi, the immediate past former Commissioner for Public Utilities, claimed that Badaru’s committee allowed Fayemi’s loyalists and Oyebanji’s supporters to be appointed presiding and returning officers of the just concluded primary election.

He said: “This was a daylight robbery and nothing short of that. They brazenly went militaristic by employing strong-arm tactics against us using their powers as incumbent governors to impose Oyebanji.

“I quite understand that he is qualified just like me to be governor, but it has to be through the normal process that is free, fair and credible. I am of the opinion that the party is supreme.

“But this can only happen when it is deemed to be fair to all and not sectional. We expect the leadership to reverse the victory allotted to Oyebanji and come clean on this primary crisis.”

Like Faparusi, Ojo accused Badaru of coming to the state to validate fraud and not for the conduct of any credible primary.

Ojo alleged that Ekiti APC concocted figures for Oyebanji, used Fayemi’s loyalists as presiding and returning officers, deployed thugs to other aspirants’ strongholds, forced appointees to support Oyebanji and bribed party members to support Fayemi’s anointed candidate.

He said: “What we witnessed in Ekiti on Thursday and the day preceding the election showed the election had been compromised even before it was conducted. With this, it was clear that Badaru was not in Ekiti for a credible poll, but to see to the anointing of one of the aspirants.

“As of now, the APC has no legal and credible candidate in Ekiti. From the results, you could attest to the fact that those figures were fake, concocted by the committee to suit their purpose.

“We asked the committee about the personalities that will be used as returning officers on Wednesday, the day preceding the primary, but they didn’t give us any useful answer.

“Majority of the people used as returning officers were members of the APC state executives, appointees of government and elected party members, who are Fayemi’s lackeys and were part of the Biodun Oyebanji Campaign Council.”

In a preliminary report it released yesterday, however, the Nigerian Human Rights Community, (NHRC) said the Ekiti State All Progressives Congress (APC) primary had proved that Direct Primary “remains the best option for the party’s internal democracy in Nigeria.”

The group acknowledged that the process was not without challenges, but it proved that direct participation of members of political parties in choosing the party’s aspirants remains the best option for Nigeria.

The group noted that the primary was not without minor hitches but that it represented the wish and aspirations of the majority of members of APC in Ekiti State.

The group urged Nigerians to disregard reports being released by people who did not witness or monitor the primary, those guided by stereotyping, wild assumptions and aspirants who saw the primary as a ‘must win’ venture.