…Tasks members on Voter Tracking, says 90 per cent votes for President achievable
Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has inaugurated the state’s All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, urging members to intensify grassroots mobilisation and work towards securing victory for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election.
The inauguration took place on Friday at the Conference Hall of the Governor’s Office in Ado-Ekiti, with prominent party leaders and political stakeholders in attendance.
Those present included Deputy Governor Monisade Afuye, Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly Adeoye Aribasoye, former governors and deputy governors, serving and former members of the National Assembly and state legislature, federal political appointees, local government chairmen and political stakeholders from the state’s 16 local government areas.
Also in attendance were governorship candidates of other political parties who have aligned with the campaign.
Addressing members shortly after the inauguration, Oyebanji said the council’s primary responsibility was not merely to organise rallies and campaigns but to identify registered voters who had stayed away from previous elections and mobilise them to participate in the 2027 polls.
He called for voter tracking at polling unit level, insisting that the campaign should focus on identifying eligible voters and understanding why many failed to participate in previous elections.
Reflecting on the June governorship election, in which the APC secured 85.7 per cent of the total votes cast, the governor said the council should aim to secure at least 90 per cent of registered voters’ support for Tinubu.
He warned that anything short of the target would amount to a collective failure by members of the campaign council.
“The real work is to get the voters registered in a unit and identify those who don’t want to vote. Our focus should be on voter tracking,” he said.
Oyebanji expressed concern over the turnout during the governorship election, noting that fewer than 400,000 people voted despite the state having about one million registered voters.
He challenged the council to establish why more than 600,000 registered voters did not participate and develop strategies to encourage them to vote in the January 2027 election.
The governor also acknowledged possible operational challenges involving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and electronic transmission of results, urging party stakeholders to strengthen voter education and mobilisation.
“We don’t like to do the heavy lifting. We want to do campaigns, arrange cars and drive round towns. We are not going to do that this time around. Our real work is to get the voters registered in each unit and identify those who have not come out to vote.
“After this inauguration, everybody should go out and agree on how we are going to do voter tracking. That is our job,” he said.
Oyebanji added that the council should not be satisfied with the previous electoral performance, urging members to identify and reach the large number of registered voters who stayed away from the polls.
“We can’t have a quality collection of leaders like this, and still be sitting on 400,000 votes. That is something we should never contemplate. The most important assignment we have now is to track those voters, to track the 600,000 people who did not come out to vote and find out why they did not come out,” the governor said.
Earlier, the APC Chairman in Ekiti State, Sola Elesin, urged members of the Presidential Campaign Council to work towards delivering unprecedented votes for Tinubu in the 16 January 2027 presidential election.
Elesin described the assignment as an important national responsibility, expressing confidence that the members’ political experience and commitment would translate into electoral success for the party.
He said members had been selected based on their political pedigree, previous contributions and proven capacity to deliver electoral victories.
The party chairman urged them to deploy their political networks, organisational abilities and experience towards securing victory for Tinubu.
Elesin also noted that the political landscape in Ekiti had witnessed increased collaboration, with members of other political parties and some governorship candidates joining the campaign.
He attributed the development to Oyebanji’s leadership style, which he said had encouraged unity, cooperation and peaceful coexistence among political stakeholders.
Delivering an acceptance speech on behalf of council members, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele assured Tinubu and Oyebanji of their commitment to improving the APC’s electoral performance in the state.
Bamidele commended the governor for ensuring that the council’s composition was broad and inclusive, covering relevant political stakeholders.
He described the inauguration as the beginning of an important assignment towards securing victory for Tinubu in the forthcoming election.
The Senate Leader cautioned members against treating the responsibility lightly, saying the council was determined to surpass the party’s previous electoral record and secure a significantly higher number of votes for the President in Ekiti.
He also acknowledged the presence of governorship candidates from other political parties and other political leaders at the event, describing their participation as significant to the campaign.
Bamidele welcomed them into the council and urged them to contribute actively to the political mobilisation effort.
He noted that many of the stakeholders shared political backgrounds and longstanding relationships with the APC before moving to other platforms, expressing optimism that their renewed collaboration would produce a result they would all be proud of.
