Ekiti APC governorship aspirants demand fresh primary, reject Al-Makura

The aspirants seeking the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the July 14 governorship poll in Ekiti state are demanding a new primary election.

The aspirants, who took the decision at the end of a meeting at Midas Hotel, Ado Ekiti, on Sunday, also demanded another election committee.

TheCable had earlier reported that they were weighing the options of either presenting a consensus candidate or conducting a fresh primary.

The leadership of the party had delegated Tanko Al-Makura, governor of Nasarawa state, to chair the committee which organised Saturday’s primary but the aspirants demanded another committee other than the one presided over by the governor.

Saturday’s exercise ended on a rancorous note after some agents alleged that there were plots to manipulate the election.

Ballot boxes were smashed while delegates casting their ballot were chased away.

After the disruption, Al-Makura entered into a meeting with the politicians, and they all left Oluyemi Kayode Stadium, venue of the exercise at the end of the meeting, without addressing the media.

But speaking with reporters at the end of Sunday meeting, Yahaya Kolade, spokeswoman of the aspirants, said all those who attended the meeting agreed that there should be another primary.

“All known aspirants were invited. 27 were present at the meeting and essence of the meeting is to know how we are going to conduct an election in Ekiti state. The very first thing we did was to condemn what happened yesterday,” she said.

“We are in total awe of what really happened. We are shocked about the disarray that happened in that stadium yesterday. It is not what we expected for our state. The quality of the ballot papers was not intact. Nobody can really see their faces very well, the security was porous and there was poor preparation.

“For all these problems, we have enlisted, we have some suggestions. The composition of the panel that was conducting the election, we want a new set to conduct the election. Another suggestion is that we want the voting and accreditation to be in an enclosed hall. We condemn monetisation of the voting system and we condemn camping. We don’t want people to be camped in Ekiti again.”

Kolade added that the aspirants agreed that the secrecy of the ballot should be respected.

She said under the new arrangement, the executive committee of the party in the state will provide transportation and feeding for all delegates.

“We are expressing to all our partners and potential colleagues that governors should not be biased about any candidate. Everything should be free, fair and transparent. There should be impartiality of the security system wherever the venue would be,” she said.

“We should respect the secrecy of ballot papers and accreditation should be done a person at a time and it should be conducted senatorially. We are expecting that the APC exco of Ekiti will provide feeding and drinks and transportation for all the delegates. No delegate leaves the accreditation place once accreditation is completed.

“We expect the sample of the ballot papers to be pasted before delegates get into the hall. We want to make sure it is the right people that are wearing the accreditation tags. There would be one agent per aspirant.

“Basically, that is what we agreed on. 27 of us were here. Five of us were missing. Because we the quorum of the meeting, we expect them to abide by this.

We are getting ready for the voting. That is why this meeting was held. It is an impromptu meeting. We expect within the next 72 hours, we will be able to have our voting.”

The party has until May 14 to present its candidate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).