Two aspirants in Monday’s senatorial primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti North Senatorial District have rejected the result of the exercise, alleging manipulation and falsification.
The aspirants – Ayodele Arise and Dare Owolabi – spoke separately on the outcome of the exercise on Tuesday.
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The APC Senatorial Primary Election Committee had declared the incumbent senator for the district, Dare Fasuyi, the winner of the exercise.
The committee said Mr Fasuyi got 14,179 votes, while Mr Arise secured 4,868 votes, Mr Owolabi 2,836 votes, and Dipo Bamisaye 3,694 votes.
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However, both Messrs Arise and Owolabi insisted that they won the shadow poll based on results collated from 33 wards where the voting exercise was completed.
According to Mr Arise, a former senator for the district, the results from 33 wards showed that he scored 8,687 votes against Mr Fasuyi’s 7,755 votes before the process was allegedly disrupted in several areas.
He said the election officials abandoned the exercise in 12 wards when it became obvious that he was leading, while officials failed to show up in 10 other wards across the district.
He also alleged that some ward results were altered to favour Mr Fasuyi, citing Iludun I Ward in Ilejemeje Local Government Area, where he claimed votes recorded for him were reduced in the final declaration.
“I won the election and I have proof. I was rigged out by the system. The result does not represent the wishes of the people. What happened yesterday was fraught with irregularities, fraud, violence and intimidation.
“Our formal petition to the APC National Working Committee is being filed with documentary evidence, ward-level results, affidavits and records from our monitoring system. I won the election and I have proof. I was rigged out by the system,” he stated.
On his part, Mr Owolabi said the irregularities that characterised the exercise were planned, while the figures announced do not exist.
He said if the original figures from the wards where the election took place were announced, he would have won with 4,341 votes. He, therefore, called for its cancellation.
“The election is not fair and there are a lot of irregularities across the board, different local governments, different wards, different units.
“We know our people, we know what they did, we know how people voted for us, we know our people are terrorised and chased out of the venues,” he said.
Mr Owolabi, however, urged his supporters to remain calm, adding that the primary elections have gone and passed. “We will fight the battle on the primary elections soon, but I want attention to be focused on the governorship election that is coming up next month, for all parties to join hands and bring back our governor.”
But reacting to the allegations, Mr Fasuyi described the claims as baseless and urged Messrs Arise and Owolabi to accept the outcome of the election in the interest of the party.
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“I want to appeal to a respected leader of our great party, Senator Arise, to accept the outcome of the primary election in good faith and join hands with us to move the party forward,” he said.
The senator, who is also the director-general of Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s re-election campaign, questioned why anyone would expect him to lose the primary election as the incumbent lawmaker.
“I’m the incumbent senator representing Ekiti North and also the director-general of Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s re-election campaign. I have remained actively connected to the grassroots, and the people know the efforts we have made. So, why would anybody expect me to lose the primary?” he asked.
Mr Fasuyi also dismissed the allegation of intimidation and manipulation during the conduct of the primary, saying “party members came out freely to vote and the process was conducted in line with the APC guidelines.”
He urged all aggrieved aspirants and their supporters to unite and work for the progress of the APC ahead of the 20 June governorship poll and the 2027 general election.
