Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Sunday said voters in Ekiti must deliver 95 per cent of votes to him in the 2023 elections because he is their own.

The former Lagos governor also urged the people to ignore his rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of the Labour Party because “you don’t know them.”

“Another election is coming by February. Will you be ready? Shine your eyes. Don’t forget your PVC,” Mr Tinubu told the crowd at the inauguration of new Ekiti governor Abiodun Oyebanji in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.

“They’re coming; One will say he is Atiku (Abubakar). One will call himself Peter Obi. You don’t know them,” he said. “The only person you know is Bola Ahmed Tinubu and you must deliver 95 percent of your votes.”

In a push to secure the APC presidential ticket in June, Mr Tinubu similarly roused his Yoruba base to say it was his turn to become the Nigerian president having helped outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari to power twice.

His now infamous ’emilokan’ diatribe in Abeokuta, Ogun State, evoked national uproar from critics who pilloried him for feeling entitled to the nation’s top job as a compensation for past political interventions.

Mr Tinubu’s latest ethnically laced campaign comes a day after the PDP flag bearer Atiku Abubakar said northerners should support a northerner like him and not a Yoruba (Mr Tinubu) or Igbo (Mr Obi) candidate.

Next year’s election, which analysts believe will be a three-horse race, is being threatened by sectarian appeals as major candidates and their strategists charge their bases to farm out votes.