BEVERLY HILLS, May 10, (THEWILL) – The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rescheduled the Ekiti governorship primary election which was initially scheduled to take place on Friday, May 11.
According to the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, the primary has been shifted by a day – to Saturday, May 12, 2018.
Abdullahi, said the decision was taken after consultation between the APC National Working Committee (NWC), aspirants and other stakeholders.
THEWILL recalls that 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.
