Opeyemi Bamidele: There Was No APC Guber Primary In Ekiti — I Was Allotted Votes

According to Opeyemi Bamidele, a serving senator and governorship hopeful in Ekiti, the All Progressives Congress (APC) did not have a primary poll in the state.
The senator had urged for the election to be called off after stating that the primary election committee was made up of supporters of Ekiti governor Kayode Fayemi.

He and other hopefuls dropped out of the race, and Biodun Oyebanji, a former secretary in the Ekiti state administration, was declared the winner.

Bamidele thanked his supporters in a statement released on Sunday, but called the exercise “a fraudulent and fictitious vote count.”

“Unfortunately, the process of conducting these primaries was hijacked, truncated, compromised and bastardised by those at the helm of affairs in Ekiti State, which is tantamount to a complete abuse of trust and leadership,” the statement reads.

“Judging from a critical assessment of our campaign strategy by positively reaching out to our people in all nooks and crannies of Ekiti State to push our progressive message, I had no doubt in my mind that we were coasting to victory had the process been transparent and fair.

“It is public knowledge that no primary election took place on Thursday, 27th January, 2022 but yet, rather disappointedly, results were announced based on concocted and fictitious vote counts.

“The underlining level of impunity, desperation and perfidy which characterised the entire rigging process was so much and thought beclouding that I was allotted 700 plus votes in a state-wide gubernatorial primary election in a state where I had scored over 94,000 votes in just one out of three senatorial districts to emerge as a senator.

“This was less than three years ago and after then, I had done much more to earn the confidence and greater love of the people through effective representation on the floor of the senate as well as life touching empowerment programmes and constituency development projects.

“More specifically, the breakdown of the votes allotted to me indicated that I got 150 votes in Ado Ekiti, my beloved second home, where I had recorded 28,000 votes out of the 42,000 votes that gave me the house of representatives mandate way back in year 2011 to represent Ado/Irepodun-Ifelodun federal constituency.

“But we will remain resolute, strong, focused and faithful in the face of this impunity, total lack of regard for the electoral due process and executive rascality by a chosen few who were elected to represent the interests of Ekiti people.