AMILOADED MEDIA HUB POLITICS UPDATE
Security has been beefed up in Ekiti State as political parties battle for votes in the 2022 governorship election.
Analysts, however, feared that the exercise, which will be conducted across 2,445 polling units in the 16 local government areas in the state, might be largely influenced by apathy and inducement by the major political parties.
According to Daily Trust Saturday reports, 16 candidates are participating in the poll, which will be decided by 988,923 registered voters, out of which 51 per cent are women and 38.56 per cent youths (18-34).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said only 749,065 voters collected their permanent voters cards for the election. However, a total of 403,451 votes were cast in the 2018 election, won by Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who recorded 197,462 votes against his main challenger, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) Kolapo Olushola, who had 177,927 votes. Thirty-three other candidates had 9,205 votes, while 18,857 votes were declared invalid.
The 2022 election is expected to be a tight race between the candidates of the ruling APC, Abiodun Oyebanji and a former governor of the state, Segun Oni, an engineer, who is the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The candidate of the PDP, Bisi Kolawole, is also expected to mount a challenge for the coveted position.
Oyebanji, who is backed by the incumbent governor, resigned as secretary to the state government to contest the poll.
The Ikogosi Ekiti-born technocrat served as the secretary of the group that lobbied the late General Sani Abacha for the creation of Ekiti State in 1996. He also served as special assistant on legislative matters to the first civilian governor of the state, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, before ending up as his chief of staff.
During Fayemi’s first term, he served as commissioner for integration before he was deployed to the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
Oni of the SDP will be going to the poll with the integrity of the profile he demonstrated when he was the governor of the state. However, he is not expected to have enough financial backing to challenge the two main parties – APC and PDP – in an election that analysts said might be decided by what locals call ‘dibo ko sebe’ (vote buying).
An Ekiti-based analyst, Kayode Opeyemi, said the outcome of the poll might be decided by vote buying as a result of the high rate of poverty in the country.
“We expect agents of the leading candidates to outdo one another in a bid to buy the votes of the people,” he said.
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