Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, has picked the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket for Oyo South Senatorial District in the primary election conducted by the Chief Ademola SerikiAdemola Seriki-led electoral panel.
He defeated Dr. Fola Akinosun by 2,659 to 168 votes, to seek a return to the Red Chamber, where he represented the state between 2003 and 2007 under the platform of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD).
Announcing the result in the early hours of Wednesday, Seriki said that the exercise, which started around 6:30pm, was delayed due the late arrival of voting materials from the national headquarters of the party in Abuja.
Addressing journalists after being declared the winner, the governor applauded the electoral committee for what he called the hitch-free and smooth conduct of the exercise, despite the earlier delay.
Ajimobi said, “I look forward to going back to the Red Chamber to contribute my quota to the national debate and the progress of the nation. I wish to bring to fore my parliamentary experience to grow a Nigeria that the next generation will be proud of.
“The process has just started on Wednesday with my emergence as the candidate of our great party. The people of Oyo South Senatorial district should expect greater performance from me at the Senate, which will even surpass my unprecedented achievements as governor by the grace of God.”
Similarly in a rare confirmation of popularity, the senator currently representing Oyo North, Fatai Buhari, has been returned as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the same position after delegates affirmed his candidacy unopposed at the primary.
Buhari picked the return ticket at the late evening primary held in Iseyin on Tuesday.
A total of 3,599 out of 3,997 delegates affirmed his nomination at the senatorial primary conducted by a team of national party officials including Barr. Ejiro Etaghene, Dr Hassim Adda and Sarah Egye Amiyawa. It was supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The event which was conducted by representatives of the National body of the party was also supervised by security agencies and members of staff of Independent Electoral commission INEC.
In his acceptance speech, Sen. Buhari thanked the party leaders and members for giving him the mandate to represent them for another four years.
” In 2014, we did the same exercise here and you supported and prayed for me to succeed. Together we have been able to achieve what we are able to do so far in the area of empowerment, infrastructural development and legislative duties.
“Today you have demonstrated another level of courage and belief in me to further represent you at the upper chamber of the National Assembly and I want to assure you that you will not regret it because I won’t betray the confidence you reposed in me.
“I will continue to work to enhance the progress of my constituents and constituency in accordance with the party manifesto to promote the integrity and ideology of the APC”.
