Controversy has enveloped the All Progressives Congress senatorial primary election in Ekiti State, as three aspirants from the North Senatorial District have claimed victory. Former Senator Ayodele Arise, incumbent Senator Cyril Fasuyi, and Dare Owolabi have traded accusations over the outcome of the poll, which took place 24 hours prior.
The APC Senatorial Primary Election Committee declared Fasuyi the winner with 14,179 votes, while Arise secured 4,868 votes. Other aspirants, Dipo Bamisaye and Dare Owolabi, obtained 3,694 and 2,836 votes respectively. However, Arise and Owolabi have rejected the result, alleging manipulation and falsification of figures.
Arise and Owolabi Reject Result
Addressing journalists separately on Tuesday, Arise insisted that he won the election based on results collated from 33 wards where voting was completed. He claimed that the results from those wards showed he scored 8,687 votes against Fasuyi's 7,755 votes before the process was allegedly disrupted in several areas.
According to Arise, election officials abandoned the exercise in 12 wards when it became apparent he was leading, while officials failed to appear in 10 other wards across the district. He also alleged that some ward results were altered to favor Fasuyi, citing Iludun I Ward in Ilejemeje Local Government Area, where he claimed his votes 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 wish of the people. What happened yesterday was fraught with irregularities, fraud, violence and intimidation,” Arise stated. “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 added.
Similarly, Dare Owolabi rejected the primary results and called for their cancellation. He asserted that the irregularities were planned and that the announced figures did not reflect reality. Owolabi claimed that if the original figures from wards where elections took place were announced, he would have won with 4,341 votes.
“The election is not fair and a lot of irregularities across board different local government 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 terrorized and chased out of the venues,” Owolabi said. He urged his supporters to remain calm, adding that the primary elections have passed. “We will fight the battle on the primary elections soon, but I want attention to be focus on the governorship election that is coming up next month for all parties to join hands and bring back our governor.”
Fasuyi Defends Victory
Reacting to the allegations, Senator Fasuyi described the claims as baseless and urged Arise and Owolabi to accept the outcome in the interest of the party. “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.
Fasuyi, who also serves as the Director-General of Governor Biodun Oyebanji's re-election campaign, questioned why anyone would expect him to lose the primary 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.
