The All Progressives Congress (APC) resoundingly won the Ekiti State governorship election on Saturday and will have Mr Biodun Oyebanji succeed Dr Kayode Fayemi, whose second term in office ends on 16th October.
Announcing the result in the early hours of Sunday, the Chief Returning Officer of the election, Prof. Kayode Adebowale said the APC polled 187,057 votes (53.16 percent) to defeat its closest challengers, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which fielded former Governor Segun Oni and had 82,211 votes (23.37 percent); and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 67,457 votes (19.17 percent). Mr Bisi Kolawole was the PDP candidate.
Oyebanji, who will be 55 on 21st December, received the strong backing of Fayemi, the outgoing Governor. The Governor-elect is from Ikogosi-Ekiti, a famous tourist centre where a cold spring flows abreast the warm spring with both meeting at a confluence, each maintaining its thermal properties. Ikogosi is in Ekiti West Local Government Area in Ekiti Central Senatorial District.
The APC won in all but one of the 16 LGAs in the state; the exception being Efon, where the PDP triumphed. Kolawole, the candidate of the party, is from that LGA, and had 6,303 votes as against Oyebanji’s 4,012 and Oni’s 339 votes.
The SDP was defeated in Ido-Osi, the LGA of Oni, its candidate. APC garnered 10,321 votes, while the SDP came second with 9,489, and Kolawole managed 2,871 votes.
Two women were on the ballot that had 16 candidates. They were 40-year-old Mrs Kemi Josephine Elebute-Halle of the Action Democratic Party and Mrs Christiana Modupe Olatawura of the Action Peoples Party. Olatawura is 62 years old.
