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From Priscilla Ediare, Ado-Ekiti
Former Senator who represented Ekiti North Senatorial District and aspirant in the recently concluded All Progressives Congress (APC) National Assembly primary election in Ekiti State, Senator Ayo Arise, has said his decision to institute legal action against the APC and challenge the outcome of the Ekiti North Senatorial primary election was aimed at safeguarding the party’s internal democratic process.
Arise made this known during an interview on a national television, where he maintained that the legal battle was bigger than his personal ambition to return to the Senate.
The APC election committee had declared incumbent Senator Cyril Fasuyi winner of the election after he polled 14,179 votes defeating Arise who scored 4,868 votes.
Arise, however, rejected the outcome.of the election, alleging that the results announced were manufactured and did not reflect the voting process witnessed across the local government areas of the senatorial district.
The former federal lawmaker said he approached the Federal High Court because he did not want the statutory 14-day window for challenging the primary to lapse while waiting for intervention from the party leadership.
He posited that his legal action was intended to ensure that the party obeyed its own rules and that members could seek justice when those rules were allegedly violated.
“The reason why I went to court is still basically that we need to correct our system. Whatever is wrong with it, we are responsible for the correction. It is not about power, it is not about being in the Senate. It is about propriety.”
He alleged that the primary was manipulated after returning officials failed to properly conduct and count votes in several locations. According to him, his campaign had deployed drones and cameras across the wards for video evidences of the exercise because he had anticipated possible irregularities.
“I suspected, I have been assured, that due process was not going to take place. I had discussions where I was urged to drop my ambition. And I said it was too late because I had gone back to the people,” he said.
Arise alleged that party members openly queued behind their preferred aspirants during the voting process and that the evidence from the exercise contradicted the figures eventually announced by the party. He said his team had videos and other materials showing how supporters voted, adding that ballot materials were allegedly removed before the final figures were produced.
“These people just refused to count any votes and went back. Now they have results. I don’t know where the results came from because they didn’t even bring papers to the election place,” he said.
While the APC announced that Fasuyi secured 14,179 votes and Arise 4,868, Arise claimed that his own collation from 33 wards gave him over 8,000 votes against Fasuyi who got 7,000 plus votes before the process was allegedly disrupted. He said the figures he cited were also reported after the primary by several Nigerian newspapers.
On whether he would accept the outcome if the court eventually upheld the APC result, Arise said his objective was not to force his way into the Senate but to challenge what he considered a defective process.
“I have done far better in every way than when I was in the Senate. But I contributed my best to represent my people. I am not in the court to say by force, by fire,” he said.
The former lawmaker also defended his continued membership of the APC despite accusing the party of denying him what he believes was his victory. He said his disagreement was with the conduct of the primary and not with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whom he declared he will continue to support.
Arise dismissed the suggestion that his legal challenge amounted to opposition to the President, saying Tinubu was not responsible for what happened in Ekiti North. He argued that the APC’s own guidelines provided for consensus or direct primary and that consensus could only stand where all aspirants agreed to it.
“Is President Tinubu responsible for what has happened in my senatorial district? The answer is no. The guidelines are there. Go and follow it. You either go by consensus or direct primaries. Consensus means everybody must agree,” he said.
Addressing reports that he was asked to withdraw from the contest on the President’s instruction. Arise said he was prepared to obey such a directive if it came directly from Tinubu, whom he acknowledged as the leader of the party, but submitted that no such direct communication took place.
“ I made myself very clear when I was approached and they said President Tinubu said I should step down.
I said if he said that, take me to the President and he tells me directly, that would be the end of it. That is what I maintained because he is the leader of the party. But they never did that. My going to court is an insurance .”
According to Arise, his experience in the primary has not weakened his commitment to the APC but has strengthened his determination to push for reforms within the party. He said he was aware that internal crises existed across political parties and that some politicians had already left the APC because of their disappointment with the primary process.
“No, it has actually emboldened my resolve to ensure that things are done properly. To try and change the party from within. Oh yes, there are problems everywhere. In the primaries, there are problems in every party. Some people left the party because they were so disappointed and crushed by what they believed was a travesty of justice. I decided to stay.”
On whether a party that struggled to conduct credible internal elections could assure Nigerians of credible governance, Arise argued that no Nigerian political party could claim complete innocence regarding the country’s electoral process.
He recalled that political parties that once controlled the centre had also been defeated through electoral processes, arguing that the problem of internal democracy should therefore be viewed as a broader challenge facing Nigeria’s political system rather than one peculiar to the APC.
“There is no single party in this country that can claim innocence when it comes to the electoral process,” he said.
Arise reaffirmed his support for President Tinubu and defended the current administration’s economic record, claiming that the President had fulfilled about 95 per cent of his campaign promises. He cited what he described as an increase in the country’s foreign reserves and improved capacity to finance imports, machinery, equipment, goods and services.
“He promised economic turnaround for this country. He inherited a foreign reserve of about $3.something billion. Today, we are at $55.25 billion,” Arise said.
Responding to whether those economic indicators had translated into improved living conditions for ordinary Nigerians, Arise acknowledged that the country’s challenges had not disappeared but said he has confident in the President and his policies.
“For me, it is not that everything is 100 per cent perfect. But I still have trust and believe in the President and the things he has done for this country.”
Arise’s legal action has kept the controversy over the Ekiti North APC primary alive months after the May 18, 2026 exercise. While the party’s official result remains that Fasuyi won the ticket, Arise continues to insist that the court should determine whether the primary complied with the APC’s guidelines and whether the declared figures reflected the actual votes cast.
