Why ACN Cancelled Ekiti Election

Babafemi-Ojudu

Babafemi Ojudu, Ekiti Senatorial candidate

Babafemi Ojudu, Ekiti Senatorial candidate

The primary election of the Action Congress of Nigeria to select candidate for the Ekiti Central Senatorial seat in Ekiti State has been cancelled for  reasons of irregularities. The rescheduled primary may hold before or by 15 January.

Reports from the five local councils that make up the senatorial zone indicated that as at 3 p.m yesterday, electoral officials and materials were yet to  arrive the wards.

One of the candidates in the primary, Mr. Babafemi Ojudu told P.M.NEWS this morning that when voters and party faithful confronted him with the anomalies, he  left his house to visit his ward, Ward 8.

“The officials later arrived at about 3 p.m with a register. I was the first to register in my ward. But in the register, I was not number one. Newswatch  was written against my name. My wife registered in my ward. Her name was not on the register. Most voters in Ward 8 had the same complaint. Other wards  experienced the same problem,” Ojudu said.

He explained that he also met party supporters, who said a similar register was brought to their wards. At the ACN headquarters in Ado Ekiti, he added, the  party leader in the area, Alhaji Tunde Olatunji, also came with the same problem.

“Together, we complained to the ACN chairman in the local government, Chief Oba Aladetoyinbo.

“When the ACN chairman saw the register, he said ‘this is false’.  We asked how the fake register got to the electoral officer of the ACN, but the chairman  suggested we should buy an exercise book and write the names of card carrying members in our wards. We told him such arrangement will be an invitation to  chaos,” Ojudu added.

The party’s National Headquarters, according to Ojudu, sent five people, including a professor, to conduct the primary. However, he alleged, the state  chairman of the party, Chief Charles Olajide Awe, prevented them and decided to conduct it himself.

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“I later called the governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.  He admitted there was crisis. The governor and party chairman decided that the primary should be  cancelled,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ojudu said since he declared his ambition, Awe has been hostile to him.

Ojudu stated that about a week ago, the chairman called a meeting at his home in Erijiyan Ekiti, where he told party faithful to support a particular  candidate the chairman said had been taking care of party elders and spending money for the party.

“When his stand at the meeting was disclosed to me, I told the governor that it was not fair for an umpire in a primary to make such a statement. He had been  preparing the people’s mind to work against me,” Ojudu asserted.

Four contestants are slugging it out for the ACN ticket in the Ekiti Central Senatorial District consisting five local governments: Ado Ekiti, Ijero, Efon,  Ekiti West and Irepodun/Ifelodun. The district has an aggregate of 57 wards.

The contestants are: Ojudu, the incumbent, Senator Bode Ola; former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State, Mr. Dele Alake; and his  successor, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele.

— Emma Osodi/Ado Ekiti

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