Biodun Oyebanji, immediate past Secretary to Ekiti Government, has emerged winner of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primaries.

Declaring the winner, the chairman of the Primary Election Committee, Governor Muhammad Badaru of Jigawa, said Mr Oyebanji had 101,703 out of the total votes cast.

Mr Badaru announced this at the State Collation Centre, APC party secretariat in Ado-Ekiti.

“It is my pleasure to declare Biodun Oyebanji as the winner of this primary, having scored the highest votes cast. Having satisfied all necessary criteria, I hereby declare Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji as the winner,” declared Mr Badaru.

He added that Ekiti APC had 183,560 registered members, 107,877 members were accredited, and the total votes cast was 104,983.

The chairman expressed surprise at the allegations by some aspirants that they were not consulted. He explained that the meeting slated for Thursday morning between the committee and the aspirants was cancelled because of a security report.

The Jigawa governor disclosed that the primaries took place across the 177 wards and that it was free and fair.

“However, there are pockets of violence. When we receive the results, we will know where we need to cancel; we will. As we have earlier promised, we have ensured a level playing ground for all aspirants,” the committee chairman added.

On the protest by some aspirants, the committee chairman explained that he had not received any official petition but only heard about it on the media. He directed that the returning officers of the wards where elections were not held should write their reports and submit the same to the committee.

The results presented by the 16 local government area returning officers revealed that Mr Oyebanj won in all the council areas.

Opeyemi Bamidele had 760 votes, Femi Bamisile, 400, Kayode Ojo, 767, Adedayo Adeyeye, 691 and Bamidele Faparusi, 376, Demola Popoola, 239 and Oluwasola Afolabi, 47 in the Option A4 direct primary adopted for the primary.

Six of the eight aspirants had protested the alleged hijack of the exercise in the morning and demanded the primaries be stopped. Messrs Oyebanji and Popoola were not among the protesters.

(NAN)