BREAKING: Governor Biodun Oyebanji Emerges APC Governorship Candidate For Ekiti 2026
Gov. Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti on Monday emerged the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the 2026 governorship election in the state.
Newsmen reports that Oyebanji emerged through popular voice votes, echoed by 885 delegates who were elected on Saturday across the 177 electoral wards in the 16 local government areas of the state.
Newsmen also reports that the governor’s adoption took place at the Ekiti State Pavilion on new Iyin Road, Ado-Ekiti via consensus.
Kick-starting the exercise, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, moved the motion for the governor’s nomination and adoption as a consensus candidate, while the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Adeoye Aribasoye, seconded the motion.
Earlier in his opening remarks, Gov. Usman Ododo of Kogi, who doubled as Chairman of Affirmation Congress Committee, said that the consensus arrangement was a collective effort, devoid of any form of colouration.
“I can inform this gathering that the decision by our great party to adopt Oyebanji is not a product of imposition, but a way to allow the good works that the APC government in Ekiti has been doing, and so far recorded, to continue”, he said.
NAN reports that the APC National Chairman, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda, had on Sunday in Ado-Ekiti, inaugurated an 11-man Consensus Committee for the party’s governorship primary in the state.
He had said that the committee, chaired by Ododo and assisted by his Edo counterpart, Monday Okpebholo, would conduct the affirmation of Oyebanji as the sole candidate of the party for the 2026 governorship poll.
Yilwatda, who spoke at the party’s secretariat in Ado-Ekiti, said that the affirmation would be done by the 885 delegates drawn from across the 16 council areas of the state.
The APC national chairman, represented by the Deputy National Organising Secretary, Chidi Duru, hailed the outcome of the delegates’ poll conducted on Saturday.
He also commended the leadership style of Oyebanji which, he said, had endeared him to the people of Ekiti.
In his acceptance speech, Oyebanji thanked President Bola Tinubu and the leadership of APC.
He particularly commended the senate leader, Ekiti National Assembly caucus, former Governors Niyi Adebayo and Kayode Fayemi, the state assembly speaker and other members of the party in the state.
“I hereby accept this honour to fly the flag of our great party in the next year’s governorship election coming up in the state, and I will never take this honour for granted.
“This is too historic, in the sense that this is the first time any ruling party would be doing this for any of its governors in power. Rest assured that this gesture will not go unappreciated.
“To my opponents in the race, be assured that there is no victor nor vanquished. We are in the race together, and the party belongs to all of us.
“Please, let’s come together to lift Ekiti, as I am ever ready to embrace everyone without segregation.
“I plead that all forms of character assassination, cyber bullying, abuses on social media should stop,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
