Nigeria Decides’23
The Senator representing Oyo Central District, Teslim Folarin, has won the Oyo State governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Folarin was declared the winner after scoring 954 votes by the Secretary of the Election Committee, who also served as the Returning Officer, Dr Abdullahi Abubarkar Kuso, at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium formerly Liberty Stadium, Oke-Ado, Ibadan.
Other scores, as announced by Kuso, are Akeem Alao: 6 votes, Adebayo Adelabu: 327 votes, Dr Azeez Adeduntan: 2 votes, Akeem Agbaje: 15 votes and Adeniyi Akintola: 0 votes, while 11 votes were declared void.
Two aspirants, including legal luminary, Chief Adeniyi Akintola and the 2019 APC governorship candidate, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, were not at the event, while three other aspirants, Dr Azeez Adeduntan, Akeem Alao and Akeem Agbaje were present.
A former Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu, was also at the primary.
Akintola had, on Thursday, announced that he would not participate in the primary, alleging that the process had been skewed to favour a particular aspirant.
He had also, on Friday, submitted a petition to the Primary Appeal Committee, claiming that he had emerged winner at a primary held at Trans Amusement Park, Ibadan, on Thursday, which was the day the national Secretariat fixed for the election.
The election, which started at about 8:45 pm, lasted for barely 45minutes as all the Senatorial districts were organised to vote simultaneously.
The Chairman of the Election Committee, Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, announced the end of voting at about 9:33 pm after the last delegate cast their vote and the sorting of the votes started at about 9:45 pm, in the presence of the agents of the aspirants.
The Primary election was monitored by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies, among other stakeholders.
Some of the delegates left the main bowl of the stadium shortly after casting their votes due to the lateness of the process, while some others waited in anticipation to hear the winner declared.
The announcement of the winner resulted in wild jubilation by the delegates who stormed the field to celebrate and embrace the winner.
The election could not hold on Thursday, as earlier planned after the Senator Afikuyomi-led committee pointed out security reasons.
To prevent a repeat of Thursday’s situation where the stadium was mobbed, the committee, in collaboration with the aspirants and party leadership, earlier held an accreditation exercise for the delegates at Jogor Event Centre, a few minutes drive from the stadium.
Earlier on Thursday, discrepancies were also pointed out when the committee met the aspirants in a meeting held behind closed doors at Premier Hotel, Ibadan, where the issue of a doctored delegates list came up.
Addressing the delegates and other stakeholders before the commencement of the Friday primary election, Senator Afikuyomi thanked all the stakeholders including delegates, aspirants, security operatives, media, the national leadership of the party and management of the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, among others, for the overwhelming support that made the process go as planned.
Reacting after he was presented the Certificate of Return, Folarin commended the delegates for their efforts, saying his main task is to get PDP out of power in the state.
He appealed to other aspirants to stay on to work with him in the interest of the party and expressed readiness to visit other aspirants and others who may be aggrieved by the result of the election, noting that the party must remain united.
Dominica Nwabufo
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