Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A full-blown political crisis has engulfed the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti North Senatorial District following Monday's senatorial primary election, as two prominent aspirants, former Senator Ayo Arise and Otunba Oluwadare Owolabi, have rejected the result declaring incumbent Senator Cyril Fasuyi the winner and are demanding an outright cancellation of the exercise. The primary, conducted on May 18, 2026, across the five local government areas of Ikole, Oye, Moba, Ilejemeje and Ido-Osi, was declared by the Senatorial Primary Election Committee to have produced Senator Fasuyi as the party's candidate for the 2027 general elections with 14,179 votes, while Senator Arise polled 4,868 votes. The other two aspirants, Dipo Bamisaye and Dare Owolabi, secured 3,694 and 2,836 votes respectively. However, addressing journalists separately on Tuesday, May 19, in Oye-Ekiti and Ado-Ekiti, both Arise and Owolabi insisted that they won the shadow poll based on results collated from 33 wards where voting was actually completed, alleging widespread irregularities, manipulation, falsification of figures, and intimidation of voters.
Senator Arise, who represented Ekiti North in the Senate from 2007 to 2011, was the most forceful in his rejection. Standing before journalists in Oye-Ekiti, he produced what he claimed was documentary evidence from 33 wards showing that he had scored 8,687 votes against Senator Fasuyi's 7,755 votes before the process was allegedly disrupted. According to Arise, election officials abandoned the exercise in 12 wards when it became obvious he was leading, while officials simply failed to show up in 10 other wards across the district. He further alleged that the total votes announced by the committee far exceeded the registered membership of the APC in Ekiti North, insisting that the figures were mathematically impossible. He also accused the committee of doctoring results to favour Senator Fasuyi, citing Iludun I Ward in Ilejemeje Local Government Area where he claimed votes recorded for him were reduced in the final declaration. "I won the election and I have proof. I was rigged out by the system. The result does not represent the wish of the people. What happened yesterday was fraught with irregularities, fraud, violence and intimidation," Arise stated. He added that a formal petition to the APC National Working Committee is being filed with documentary evidence, ward-level results, affidavits and records from his campaign's monitoring system. He appealed to President Bola Tinubu and APC National Chairman, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda, to investigate the conduct of the primary and ensure that the authentic result is upheld, warning that ignoring the grievance of party members could be dangerous for the party's integrity and electoral fortunes.
Otunba Oluwadare Owolabi, the third aspirant, was even more scathing in his assessment of the primary. Speaking to reporters shortly after the exercise, he called for the outright cancellation of the election, describing it as an act of terrorism against democracy. According to him, the entire process failed to meet democratic standards, and there was no proper accreditation of delegates, while the votes were not counted the way they should have been counted. He alleged that officials deployed to supervise the election were government employees, which compromised the neutrality of the exercise, and he accused organisers of deliberately disrupting the venue to create panic among party members and supporters. "People ran for their lives because the venue became chaotic. I consider what happened an act of terrorism against democracy," Owolabi maintained. While the official result allocated to him was about 2,800 votes, he said reports from his supporters indicated he secured about 4,341 votes, adding that the irregularities that characterised the exercise were planned and the figures announced by the committee do not exist. "The election is not fair and there were a lot of irregularities across different local governments, wards and units. We know our people, we know what they did, we know how people voted for us, we know our people are terrorised and chased out of the venues," he stated. He, however, urged his supporters to remain calm and peaceful, stressing that the primary elections had come and gone and that he would fight the battle through internal party mechanisms.
For his part, Senator Cyril Fasuyi, the incumbent lawmaker who has been declared the winner, dismissed the claims of his rivals as baseless and urged them to accept the outcome in the interest of the party. Speaking in response to the allegations, Fasuyi maintained that his victory reflected the genuine support and acceptance he enjoys across the five local government areas of the senatorial district due to his performance in office. "I want to appeal to a respected leader of our great party, Senator Arise, to accept the outcome of the primary election in good faith and join hands with us to move the party forward," he said. The senator, who also serves as the Director-General of Governor Biodun Oyebanji's re-election campaign, questioned why anyone would expect him to lose the primary election as the incumbent lawmaker who has remained actively connected to the grassroots. He insisted that party members came out freely to vote and that the process was conducted strictly in line with APC guidelines. The Chairman of the Senatorial Primary Election Committee, Asipa Wasiu Adedoyin, had earlier declared the process transparent and in strict compliance with the party's guidelines, but that declaration has done little to calm the brewing storm within the party in Ekiti North.
The crisis in Ekiti North is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of post-primary disputes that have erupted across several states following the APC's National Assembly primaries. In Ondo South Senatorial District, a former deputy governor, Agboola Ajayi, has similarly denounced the result of the primary as fake and demanded a review. In Bauchi South, aspirant Abdulmumin Kundak has alleged that no valid primary was conducted at all. However, the dispute in Ekiti North stands out for the specificity of the allegations and the detailed counter-claims being presented by the aggrieved aspirants. Arise's assertion that he has ward-level results, affidavits and monitoring records that prove his victory, if substantiated, could pose a serious credibility challenge to the party's leadership and force a review of the outcome. The timing is also significant, as the APC is preparing for governorship elections in several states next month, and a protracted internal crisis in a key senatorial district could distract from the party's broader electoral preparations.
As the three aspirants trade accusations and the APC National Working Committee prepares to receive formal petitions, the people of Ekiti North are watching anxiously. For many party members, the primary election was supposed to be an opportunity to choose their preferred candidate democratically. Instead, they have been treated to allegations of manipulation, abandonment of polling units, and terrorisation of voters. The outcome of this dispute will depend on whether the party's internal dispute resolution mechanisms are robust enough to handle such a high-stakes conflict, or whether the crisis will fester and ultimately end up in court, as has happened with so many APC primaries in the past. For now, Senator Fasuyi holds the party's ticket, but Senator Arise and Otunba Owolabi have made it clear that they will not let the matter rest without a fight. The coming days will reveal whether the APC leadership can restore confidence in its electoral processes or whether the crisis in Ekiti North will deepen into a full-blown factional war.
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