By Adedoyin Falolu
The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State are currently in Jubilation mood as their flagbearer thrashed other candidates in the results of Saturday’s governorship election.
It was glaring that the candidate of the party, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, beat the 15 other candidates that partook in the exercise.
Oyebanji, who is the immediate past Secretary to the State Government, won in 15 out of the 16 Local Government Areas of the state. He polled 187,057 votes.
However, his closest challenger, Mr Segun Oni, of the Social Democratic Party, scored 82,211 votes while the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bisi Kolawole, scored 67,457 votes. Kolawole won his LGA, Efon, where he scored 6,303 to beat APC’s 4,012 and SDP’s 339 votes.
There were jubilations in Ikogosi-Ekiti, Ekiti West Local Government Area, where Oyebanji hails from, residents also began celebrating the victory of their kinsman at the poll.
Also in Ikere-Ekiti, where Oyebanji’s running mate, Mrs Monitade Afuye, hails from, residents also began celebration as the results were announced by the respective local government Returning Officers.
It was observed that prior to the announcement of the results at the collation centre, all the results from the 16 local government areas had been uploaded on the Result Viewing Portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission, known as IReV.
Although the governorship election held across the 16 Local Government Areas and was relatively peaceful, incidents of vote-buying characterised the poll.
Candidates and agents of some political parties also alleged inducement of voters to deprive them of the opportunity of making their free choices.
Meanwhile,Prof Kayode Adebowale,Vice Chancellor,University of ibadan,INEC returning officer for Ekiti has declared Oyebanji the winner of Ekiti Gubernatorial election having satisfied the requirement as stipulated by the constitution.