Ekiti 2026: Opposition Parties Threaten Boycott Over Candidate’s Exclusion

Opposition parties in Ekiti State have threatened to boycott the June 20 governorship election in the state if Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refuses to include the name of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Dr Wole Oluyede, in its list of candidates for the election.

The parties under the aegis of the state chapter of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) said the exclusion of the PDP candidate from the list of parties cleared so far to participate in the fourth coming election remained unclear to them.

Speaking after holding a meeting with top officials of INEC and PDP leaders at the INEC office in Ado Ekiti, the state capital on Monday, the IPAC chairman, Hon Oowola Daramola, said the PDP primary election was free, fair and credible.

The PDP members, leaders, and Oluyede loyalists alongside the IPAC chairman had stormed the INEC office in a peaceful protest against the exclusion of the party candidate from the INEC list.

Daramola while addressing journalists after the meeting, said, “I am aware that PDP actually went through their exercise in following due process and they actually conducted the primary in line with the electoral Act and the candidates emerged. But unfortunately, between the time the primary was held and uploading something must have gone wrong.

“As the IPAC Chairman in Ekiti state, we want to establish one thing today, in Nigeria the narrative will change, there must be free and fair and credible elections. All other political parties are aware of this. We are not going into the race with anybody being excluded illegally.

“We want INEC to come out and tell the whole world what is wrong with the candidature of Oluyede in PDP. Otherwise, we will just leave the election for APC or whoever they want to run the election.The commission should come out and tell us expressly why Oluyede’s name was not published”.

Also speaking, a PDP  chieftain in the state, Hon.  Ayodeji Ogunsakin, party members came to INEC office  under the leadership of the state IPAC which came to sympathise and solidarise with the PDP.

Ogunsakin said INEC officials during the meeting confirmed  that they supervised the  primary  and there was no issue.

He said, “They were with us from night to the morning of the following day.We followed the process, there was no court stopping us from conducting our primaries, there was no court judgment after the primaries, and if they are even referring to the issue of convention, we did our primaries in the state two weeks before the impending convention.

“So what happened, why did INEC not allow the National Leadership of the  Party to upload the name of our candidate on their portal? It is shocking to us.

“We thanked the IPAC chairman, he has said that no PDP, no election in Ekiti. And for us, this is unprecedented. This has never happened in the political history of Ekiti INEC, it has never happened.

“No party has been denied participation in any election. The INEC themselves told us that they have no right, that it is not in their powers, that they are not empowered to deny any party from participating in the elections. So why is the National INEC doing what they have done, or what they are doing!is surprising to us.

“We are here to register our grievances, and they told us that we should take several steps to ensure that for them in the state, they have done what they need to do.And if your candidate is not being uploaded, what will you do?

“We don’t want a crisis in Ekiti state. This is coming at the point where everybody is saying the APC should not turn Nigeria into a one-party state.

“And I’m aware that the president is not even aware of this. He does not even have a hand in this.”

Also speaking,  the Ekiti INEC REC, Dr. Bunmi Omoseyindemi, who was represented by Head of Department, Election and Party Monitoring, Mr Kehinde Mustapha, said the electoral body in the state has done what it’s supposed to do as far as the shadow election is concerned.

According to him, “We never favour any party to the detriment of others. We have 17 political parties in this state.  As HOD EPM, I attended all the party primary elections, because we have to treat all political parties the same way. We did the primary, wrote our report and sent it to Abuja . Even some of the party leaders, including the candidate you are referring to, have the copies of our report with them and they can testify that Ekiti INEC has no issues with them.

“We have done the work we are supposed to do regarding the primary election. We told them we like the way you come here but we will be happier  if your leaders can go to our national headquarters in Abuja to ask what is happening. We can’t tell you here what went wrong, because we are not responsible for it.  We came to Ekiti and we saw that Ekiti is peaceful and we wouldn’t want a situation whereby they would see INEC as the body causing a crisis in the state . We have credibility. We are not supporting any political party”.