By Emmanuel Uffot
The candidate of the All Progressive Congress, APC, a former governor and perennial gubernat Biodun Adebanjo in the just concluded governorship election in Ekiti state has emerged the winner. He scored 187,057 votes to defeat his close contenders Segun Oni,a former governor and perennial gubernatorial aspirant, and candidate of Social Democratic Party, SDP, who polled 82,211 to come second while the Peoples Democratic party candidate Bisi Kolawole scored 67,457 votes to follow third.
The Chief Returning Officer of the election Professor KayodeAdebowale who is the Vice- Chancellor of University of Ibadan announced the APC candidate as the winner having scored the highest number of votes spread across the 16 local government areas of the state.
Oyebanji, former Secretary to the State Government who enjoyed the support of the incumbent governor and former Minister of Mines and Steel Development Kayode Fayemi won 15 out of the 16 local governments being, Moba, Ikere– Ekiti, Irepodun/Ifelodun, Ado-Ekiti, Ijero, Ilejemeje, Ekiti South West, Ido-Osi, Ise– Orun, Gbonyin, Oye, Ekiti West, Ikere, Emure and Ikole– Ekiti while Kolawole won in his native Efon local government area.
The PDP candidate Kolawole who enjoyed the support of former governor Ayodele Fayose did not win any of the council areas.
A breakdown of the votes scored by the parties that filed in candidates are as follows, APC, Biodun Oyebanji-187,057, SDP, Segun Oni- 82,211, PDP, Bisi Kolawole– 67,457, ADC–5,997, ADP-3,495, APP-1,980, PRP–1,980, YPP-618, NNPP-529, AAC-409, APGA-376,ALM-290, ZLP-282, LP-195 and Accord Party-166.
Total registered voters in the state were 989,224, accredited voters for the election were- 365,438 while total votes cast at the election stood at 360,753. The election recorded 351,865 validvotes and 8,888 were voided votes.
Although the election which witness the debut deployment of the new electoral act electronic transmission of result, was generally peaceful devoid of violence and snatching of ballot papers and intimidation of voters, but incidences of vote buying reportedly played out in some areas during the election.
Unlike in the presidential primaries of the APC and PDP which EFCC were present to check vote buying which took place glaringly without any arrest by the anti-graft, the agency made some arrest of those that were involved in vote buying in the Ekiti election.
However, in as much as the election was commended by prominent citizens of the state like former governor NiyiAdebayo as peaceful, some of the aspirants frowned at the high level of both buying which they fingered the ruling APC as setting the pace by virtue of the incumbency power and Fayemi. In the light of this, most of the agents of the key contending
Parties like SDP and PDP shunned signing the final results in protest of the vote buying orchestrated prominently by APC. Only agents of 5 parties including APC out of the 15 that contested signed the result.
Infact, the SDP candidate Oni has protested the outcome of the election and has vowed to challenge it in court while Kolawoleof PDP has congratulated Oyebanji for his victory.
For political onlookers the outcome of 5the election specifically the gap the winner won was unexpected given the strong presence of PDP in the state, the pedigree of the SDP candidate who had been a governor before and contested for the position severally.
However emerging facts revealed that the choice of the PDP candidate which followers believe was singlehandedly imposed by former governor Fayose and the rift between PDP power brokers like Fayose, senatorOlubumi Olujimi, former deputy governor and Oni which caused him to defect to SDP whittled down the strength of PDP ahead the election, thereby paving way for APC which already had enormous structures bequeathed by the incumbent governor and Fayemi , also a two time governor, minister and presidential candidate of the ruling party
Election of Oyebanji broke an existing jinx that a sitting governor produced a successor and a back-to-back victory by a political party.
First civilian governor Adebayo of the defunct Alliance for Democracy, AD, could not win his re-election in 2003 as he was defeated by Ayo Fayose who later got impeached over allegations of corruption during Obasanjo era who many beleieved master minded the impeachment of the fearless governor.
Then came Segun Oni, then candidate of PDP who won in 2007 election but his vivtory was contested by Fayemi who eventually won in court and was sworn in 2010. Like a jinx he failed his second term bid to Fayose in 2014 governorship election.
Fayemi, later drop his ministerial portfolio and staged a comeback in 2018 and defeated PDP candidate then deputy governor under Fayose, Olusola Eleka.
In his quest to become Ekiti governor, Oyebanji had the backing of Fayemi, which fuelled speculations of an imposition on the state. The claims gained louder decibels during the build-up to the APC governorship primary, where seven aspirants withdrew from the poll over the allegation that the election committee was made up of loyalists of Fayemi.
Oyebanji was born on December 21, 1967, Oyebanji was born to Ezekiel Kunle and Esther in Ikogosi-Ekiti. He began his education at the Baptist Primary School in his hometown before attending the Awo Community High School; C.A.C. Grammar School, Efon-Alaaye; and District Commercial Secondary School, Aramoko-Ekiti. He then earned a first degree in political science from the Ondo State University (now Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti) in 1989.
Three years later, Oyebanji added a master’s in political science from the University of Ibadan (UI) to his curriculum vitae.
With credentials solidifying his knowledge in the field of political sciences, he sojourned into academics. He became a lecturer at the department of political science of the University of Ado Ekiti, where he worked for four years. His next path led to managing the treasury and financial services at the defunct Omega Bank Plc (now Heritage Bank) till May 1999 after which he segued into politics and governance.
He holds the record as the longest serving public servant the state to be elected governor as throughout Ekiti’s 26 years of existence, Oyebanji has been in public service for over 11 of those.
He began his political career as a special assistant on parliamentary affairs to Niyi Adebayo, the state’s first elected governor, in 1999 and then later became the chief of staff in the latter stage of the administration in 2003.
Then the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Ayodele Fayosecame into power, and Oyebanji was on a six-year sabbaticalfrom public service. He returned in 2009 but as the chairman of the governing board, Citizenship and Leadership Training Centre, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development — a position he held from June 2009 to December 2010.
After a court ruling sacked Segun Oni of PDP in 2009 and Kayode Fayemi was elected governor in 2010, Oyebanji was first appointed the Commissioner for Integration and Inter-governmental Affairs before he was brought to head Ekiti’soffice of transformation strategy and delivery (OTSD) a year later.
He was then named the Commissioner for Budget, and Economic Planning in 2013 and held the position till October 2014.
In 2018, after Fayemi was elected for a second term, Oyebanjigot back into public service and was appointed secretary to the state government (SSG), a position he held until he resigned to join the governorship race in late 2021.
