Progressives Congress (APC) has rescheduled the Ekiti governorship primary election.
Initially scheduled to take place on Friday, May 11, the primary has been shifted by a day – to Saturday, May 12, 2018.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi, said the decision was taken after consultation between the APC National Working Committee (NWC), aspirants and other stakeholders.
The APC had picked Friday for the exercise after the first primary, held on Saturday last week, was declared inconclusive due to violence.
Many APC supporters, including 2,408 delegates from the 16 local government areas, had assembled at the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado Ekiti for the party primary on Saturday to pick one of 33 aspirants as the party’s governorship candidate.
Among the top contenders were two former governors of the state – Kayode Fayemi and Segun Oni – and three former lawmakers.
But the primary degenerated into violence and was declared inconclusive after some persons invaded the venue and disrupted the exercise by snatching ballot boxes and destroying materials for the exercise. It took the intervention of the police to restore order.
The development led to criticism of the process and the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, who is also the governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura.
A day later, Al-Makura condemned the violence and explained that he had to cancel the exercise after observing the violence.
One of the aspirants and former governor of the state, Fayemi, claimed those who disrupted the exercise were working for some of the governorship aspirants.
Fayemi in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Yinka Oyebode said the party did not deserve the type of ridicule the act of the hoodlums subjected it to.
“The disruption of the primary election was the height of desperation on the part of some aspirants, who having seen defeat staring them in the face, conspired together to ensure that the exercise was not concluded.
“The aspirants resorted to violence and destruction, having realised that he was already in a clear lead in the five local governments that had cast their votes,” he said.
