‘We Are Waiting,’ Oyebanji’s Camp Dares Oni To Challenge Ekiti Election Result

Biodun Oyebanji turned up to vote in the Ekiti governorship elections on June 18, 2022. Sodiq Adelakun/Channels Television

The Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) Campaign Organisation has dared former governor Segun Oni to challenge the outcome of the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti State.

Mr Cyril Fasuyi, who is the Director-General of the organisation, stated this during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics a day after the poll held.

“It is usual for Engineer Segun Oni and his team,” he said of the reaction from Oni who was the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the election. “When you see a man that has a habitual way of thinking that if it is not him, then it is nobody; then you won’t be shocked that a party that was defeated with over 100,000 votes … comes to say it rejects the result, it is amazing.

“There is nothing wrong, he is free to go anywhere. In court, there is this usual parlance that he who alleges must prove; so, we are waiting, they should bring out all the proofs they have against us.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Biodun Oyebanji, as the winner of the keenly contested election.

Oyebanji polled 187,057 votes – over 100,000 votes more than that of his closest rival, Oni who scored 82,211 votes in the election. Mr Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came third in the poll with 67,457 votes.

A day after the APC flagbearer was returned elected, Oni who was governor between 2007 and 2010, through his media aide, Moses Jolayemi, rejected the outcome of the election, citing electoral malpractices allegedly by the ruling party.

Jolayemi had also accused the APC of hiring hoodlums for vote-buying and snatching of ballot boxes – claims which the APC swiftly denied.

“I was the director-general of BAO campaign organisation; I have knowledge of everything that was done and there was nothing (to suggest vote-buying) in the entire budget of BAO campaign organisation,” Fasuyi stressed.

“There was only one budget to which I was a party and there was no line called vote-buying. I was a principal actor from the beginning to the end.”

Reacting to the arrest of some persons by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations of vote-buying, Fasuyi stated that the APC has no connection with the activities of the suspects.

According to him, it could be a ploy by perceived opponents seeking to link the ruling party to a crime it has not committed.