Omosola Friday
The Chairman, Southern Senators Forum and governorship aspirant in the just concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election in Ekiti State, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has affirmed that he will challenge the validity of the primary results declared by the party.
Bamidele made this in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Sunday insisting that he would take all the necessary legal actions to correct the alleged electoral evils perpetrated during the primary.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters let out that the election would be subjected to legal scrutiny via the party’s constitution and the amended 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Recall that, Bamidele and six others had earlier withdrawn from the race, but according to the results declared by the chairman APC Primary Election Committee, Governor Abubakar Mohammed Badaru, he gathered total votes of 706 to be at the third position, while the former Secretary to the State Government, Biodun Oyebanji, polled 101,703 to become the party’s flagbearer.
However, Bamidele said no election was held on January 27, adding that the result figures released by the committee were fabricated to suit a certain aspirant.
Bamidele expressed disappointment over the process of conducting the primary which he said was hijacked, truncated, and compromised by those at the helm of affairs in the State.
“It is public knowledge that no primary election took place on Thursday, 27th January, 2022 but yet, rather disappointingly, results were announced based on concocted and fictitious vote counts.
“The underlying level of impunity, desperation, and perfidy which characterized 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 90,000 votes in just one out of three senatorial districts to emerge as a senator.
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“More specifically, the breakdown of the votes allocated to me indicated that I got 150 votes in Ado Ekiti, my beloved second home where I had recorded twenty-eight thousand votes out of the 42,000 votes that gave me the House of Representatives mandates way back in the 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,” he stated.
Furthermore, he lauded the party both at the national, state, local government, and ward levels for their unrelenting support in the governance of Ekiti State.
“I have fought quite several battles in my life based on my sense of indignation to injustice, but I had never resolved to stand up and challenge principalities and powers in utmost determination to defeat darkness and make the lights of Ekiti and her people shine again,” he said.
