Follow Us on Google
Charges members on aggressive mobilisation
_________________________________________________________________
From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji on Friday inaugurated the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council in the state.
The governor charged the 157-member council to accelerate grassroots mobilisation for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election, in order to achieve the president’s re-election bid.
Speaking shortly after the inauguration ceremony, held at the Conference Hall of the Governor’s office in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the governor emphasised that the critical task before the council is not organising campaigns and rallies, but ensuring that registered voters who failed to participate in previous elections are identified and mobilised to vote.
He noted that the focus should be on unit-by-unit tracking of registered voters across the state, to secure at least 90 per cent of the total votes cast for the president in the forthcoming election.
The ceremony brought together key party leaders, including the Deputy Governor, Chief (Mrs) Monisade Afuye; the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt. (Hon.) Adeoye Aribasoye; former governors; former deputy governors; serving and former members of the National Assembly and the state House of Assembly; serving federal political appointees; and governorship candidates of other political parties. These included the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 20 June 2026 governorship election in the state, Dr Wole Oluyede; the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Alade Adedayo; and the candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Chief Joseph Anifowose. The PDP National Deputy Secretary, Hon. Bisi Kolawole, was also present.
Others in attendance were local government chairmen and political stakeholders from across the 16 local government areas of the state.
Reflecting on the state’s governorship election, in which the party secured 85.7 per cent of the total votes cast, Governor Oyebanji declared that anything short of 90 per cent of the total number of registered voters for President Tinubu would be a collective failure on the part of the council members.
“The real work is to get the voters registered in a unit and identify those who don’t want to vote. Our focus should be on voter tracking.”
Expressing concern over the poor turnout in the June governorship election, Governor Oyebanji highlighted the gap between one million registered voters and fewer than 400,000 citizens who actually voted. He tasked the committee with discovering why over 600,000 registered cardholders stayed at home, stressing the need to bring them to the polls in January to vote for the president.
Acknowledging potential operational obstacles with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and electronic transmission, the governor urged party stakeholders to develop strategic workarounds through continuous voter education and mobilisation.
“We don’t like to do the heavy lifting. We want to do campaigns, not arrange cars and drive round towns. We are not going to do that this time around. Our real work is to get the voters registered in each unit and identify those who have not come out to vote. After this inauguration, everybody should go out and agree on how we are going to do voter tracking. That is our job.
“We can’t have a quality collection of leaders like this and still be sitting on 400,000 votes. That is something we should never contemplate. The most important assignment we have now is to track those voters, to track the 600,000 people who did not come out to vote and find out why they did not come out,” the governor asserted.
Earlier, the Chairman of the APC in Ekiti State, Barr. Sola Elesin, charged members of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) to work assiduously towards securing unprecedented votes for President Tinubu in the 16 January 2027 presidential election.
The APC chairman described the assignment before the council members as a serious national responsibility, expressing confidence that their wealth of political experience and commitment would translate into victory for the president.
Elesin said members of the council had been carefully selected based on their pedigree, previous contributions and proven capacity to deliver electoral victories, urging them to deploy their wealth of experience, political networks and organisational abilities towards ensuring a resounding victory for the party.
He noted that the political landscape in Ekiti had witnessed an unprecedented level of collaboration, with members of other political parties and some governorship candidates also joining the campaign effort. According to the party chairman, the growing coalition reflected the governor’s ability to provide purposeful leadership, demonstrate humility and bring people together, thereby promoting unity and peaceful coexistence in the state.
Delivering an acceptance speech on behalf of the council members, the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, assured President Bola Tinubu and Governor Oyebanji of the readiness and commitment of the members to deliver an improved electoral performance for the party. He also commended the governor for ensuring that the composition of the council was comprehensive and inclusive of all relevant stakeholders.
He expressed appreciation to the governor for the confidence reposed in the members through their appointments, noting that the inauguration marked the beginning of a serious assignment towards securing victory for President Tinubu in the forthcoming election.
The Senate Leader, however, cautioned against taking the assignment with levity, stressing that the council was determined to surpass the previous electoral record and secure a significantly higher number of votes for the president in Ekiti State.
While also acknowledging the presence of governorship candidates from other political parties and other political leaders at the inauguration, Senator Bamidele described their participation as significant to the collective political effort to re-elect President Tinubu.
The Senate Leader welcomed them into the council’s fold and urged them to feel at home, noting that many of them had shared political backgrounds and relationships with the APC before moving to other political platforms. He expressed optimism that their renewed political collaboration would produce a historic outcome that none of the stakeholders would regret.
