The All Progressives Congress governorship primary election in Ekiti State slated for today is not postponed, the party has said.
The PUNCH had reported that seven governorship aspirants on the platform of the APC withdrew from the party’s primary election in Ekiti on Thursday. They had protested the process of the governorship primary election holding today.
The Secretary, Ekiti State APC Governorship Primary Election Committee, Victor Olabimtan, however, said in a statement on Thursday that the party primary will continue in all the party’s 177 wards of Ekiti.
The statement was titled, ‘Ekiti State APC Primary Election Is Not Postponed’.
It partly read, “The Ekiti State APC governorship primary election Committee wishes to assure the general public that a level playing field that will guarantee fairness, openness and transparency has been adopted by the Committee.
“It is an incontrovertible fact that every member of the appointed Electoral Officers for today’s primary election is a bonafide member of Ekiti State APC.
“You will recall that during the stakeholders’ meeting between the Committee, aspirants and others yesterday, this issue was raised and exhaustively discussed, and to reinforce confidence in the process, it was agreed that each aspirant should nominate 20 people each to be part of the process. All the aspirants took advantage of this window of opportunity and submitted the list of their nominated electoral officers.
“All the submitted lists have been added to the existing arrangement, assigned into various wards and local governments. They have all been incorporated.
“We hereby call on all well-meaning APC members in Ekiti State to go to their respective wards to fully exercise their voting right without fear or intimidation. The adopted option A4 is the most transparent form of election.”
The immediate past Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Bisi Kolawole, on Wednesday, had emerged as the candidate of the party for the June 18 governorship election.
This was as the men of the Nigerian Army in Akure, Ondo State on Wednesday arrested no fewer than 150 political thugs at Ita Awure/Efon Junction in Efon Alaaye in Ekiti.
It was gathered that the political thugs were heading towards Ado Ekiti for the primaries of some of the political parties ahead of the forthcoming state governorship election when they were apprehended.
The June governorship election has been predicted by many political analysts to be between the APC and the PDP as Governor Kayode Fayemi bows out later in October 2022.
Copyright PUNCH.
