Party electoral officers turned in the results from the wards at the state APC secretariat in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday.
Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State have affirmed the candidature of President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the February 16 presidential election.
The direct primary was held in all the 177 wards of the state on Friday with party members trooping out in large numbers.
Reports from the wards showed that exercise was conducted with voice vote with no voice of dissent against the President’s candidacy.
Party electoral officers turned in the results from the wards at the state APC secretariat in Ado-Ekiti on Saturday.
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The state APC Chairman, Mr. Paul Omotoso, led other members of the executives to receive the results from the wards and supervising the collation.
Collation of the APC presidential primary election was still going on at the time of filing this report.
Speaking on the conduct of the presidential primary, Ekiti APC Chairman Omotoso and Publicity Secretary, Mr. Ade Ajayi, expressed satisfaction with the exercise.
Omotoso said party members, with their overwhelming votes for the President, have restated their resolve in ensuring the return of Buhari to Aso Villa beyond 2019.
He said the APC in Ekiti was ready to win all the available legislative seats and presidential poll in the 2019 general elections.
Omotoso said: “We had our presidential primary on Friday in all the 177 wards and the candidacy of President Muhammad Buhari was affirmed.
“You will recall that the the President had earlier been adopted as the presidential candidate during our state congress on September 15 but we have now formalised it with the conduct of a direct primary.
“Majority of party members voted in all the wards and we had ‘yes’ vote in all the 177 wards. The turnout was impressive and party members were excited about it.
“That shows the acceptability of our presidential candidate to every member of the party and as much as we are doing that, there was a general resolution that all party members are determined to return President Buhari to Aso Villa come 2019.
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“We are already collating the results from the wards for onward transmission to the APC national secretariat in Abuja in line with the guidelines and party constitution.
“Further to this as a party, we have also resolved to embark on aggressive, massive and meaningful mobilisation drive for the party in Ekiti State.
“We are fully ready for the presidential election and State and National Assembly elections. We are optimistic of winning all elections in Ekiti.”
Party spokesman Ajayi said: “We have wholeheartedly endorsed President Buhari which has now been formalised through affirmation and the party is now fully focused on the general elections.
“The large turnout in our party shows that Ekiti State is now an APC state because the PDP has gone into oblivion.”
