Declaring the results early on Saturday at the party’s Secretariat in Ado Ekiti, the Chairman of the National Working Committee on senatorial primary elections in Ekiti State, Mr Ibrahim Sule, said Bamidele polled a total of 61,823 votes to defeat his closest rival, who garnered 3,289.
Former Lagos State commissioner, Opeyemi Bamidele, has emerged the senatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress for Ekiti Central.
Bamidele defeated the incumbent, Senator Fatima Raji-Rasaki, a recent convert to the party from the Peoples Democratic Party.
However, Raji-Rasaki is not taking her defeat lightly as she complained that she ought to have been given automatic second term ticket, as it was part of the promises made to her when she joined the APC.
Candidates for the other two Ekiti senatorial seats, six House of Representatives seats have also been announced.
Picked as candidates are Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi for Ekiti North Senatorial District and Prince Dayo Adeyeye, a former PDP governorship aspirant, who recently defected to the APC.
The six candidates for the House of Representatives seats are Yemi Adaramodu, former Chief of Staff to Governor-elect Kayode Fayemi, former Speaker of the state House of Assembly and one of the governorship aspirants that contested the last election with Fayemi, Mr. Femi Bamisile.
The others are Mr Fatoba Olusola, Ogunlola Steve, Peter Owolabi and Ibrahim Olanrewaju, all said to be close political associates of Fayemi.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the candidates emerged in the direct primary elections that began in the afternoon of Friday and dragged into the early hours of Saturday.
Declaring the results early on Saturday at the party’s Secretariat in Ado Ekiti, the Chairman of the National Working Committee on senatorial primary elections in Ekiti State, Mr Ibrahim Sule, said Bamidele polled a total of 61,823 votes to defeat his closest rival, who garnered 3,289.
In the election in Ekiti North, Senator Olu Adetumbi clinched the senatorial ticket with a total of 2,763 votes while Adeyeye won Ekiti South with a total of 51, 443 votes.
(NAN)
