As the 2022 governorship primary election of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) approaches in Ekiti State, the governorship aspirants are already warming up to emerge as the flag bearers of the party.

The party had fixed the date for the conduct of the 2022 governorship primary election in Ekiti State.

The party governorship primary election will take place on January 28, 2022, to elect the PDP candidate.

It was gathered that the sale of the nomination forms commences September 13 with the sales of Expression of Interest (EoI) and Nomination Forms and the last date for the sale of the forms is September 30 while Tuesday, October 5, 2021, is the last date for the submission of forms.

The nomination forms cost each aspirant the sum of N20 million, while N1 million will be paid for the expression of interest form.

Also, the PDP will screen all the aspirants to ensure their eligibility on October 11.

The certificates of eligibility will be given to those who qualify to contest the governorship primary election.

The appeal committee for those disqualified by the screening committee will take place on October 25.

The election of ward congresses to elect the three-man ad-hoc delegates will commence on Friday, January 7 to Saturday, January 8, 2022, while the local government congresses to elect one National Delegates as well as one person living with disability from each local government area in the state have been scheduled to hold on Saturday, January 15, 2022.

The governorship primary election will take place on January 28, 2022.

Some of the aspirants likely to obtain the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms include; former governor, Chief Segun Oni; current state chairman of the party, Otunba Bisi Kolawole; former deputy governor and party’s candidate in the 2018 election, Professor Kolapo Olusola-Eleka; a financial expert, Mr Kayode Adaramodu; an architect, Mr Lateef Ajijola, the party’s National Treasurer, Honourable Adewale Aribisala and a serving Senator in the National Assembly, Biodun Olujimi.

According to Newsflash Nigeria’s report, none of the aspirants has obtained the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms since the forms commenced on September 13. Though, sources gathered that the former governor, Segun Oni may obtain his own form on Monday, September 20.

Check-in at the camps of the major aspirants revealed that the governorship hopefuls are meeting and selling their aspirations to the party delegates across the 16 local government areas of the state in a bid to fly the party’s flag in the next year poll.

By calculations, about 1,951 delegates of the PDP would vote in the party’s governorship primary election.

The delegates are drawn from the 177 wards of the 16 local government areas of the state.

The former governor of the state, Ayo Fayose is believed to be controlled by most of the delegates because his group was favoured by the control congresses conducted across the 155 wards of Ekiti State in 2020 while the remaining 22 wards are still pending. Though a serving senator, Biodun Olujimi has taken the battle to the Supreme Court after the High Court and the Appeal Court had validated the Fayose faction.

Fayose and Olujimi have been battling over who controls the party’s structure in the state since the close of the last governorship election.

In February, the Fayose group, otherwise known as Osoko People’s Assembly (OPA) had endorsed Bisi Kolawole, the current chairman of PDP in the state as his preferred candidate while the Olujimi group, popularly known as the Repositioning Group recently elected, Lateef Ajijola as the group candidate for the party primary.

Though, a ring leader of the Repositioning Group, Senator Biodun Olujimi, boycotted the shadow primary in the group. The lawmaker is hopeful to contest the governorship position fighting the agitation for power shift to the south zone.

The former minority leader of the senate said the mini primary was against the interest and agitations of Ekiti South to produce a PDP guber candidate.

The newspaper understands that the number of delegates as of today was made up of 172 statutory and 1,779 elected party officers.

The medium gathered that the statutory delegates comprised the past governors and Deputy Governors, present and past federal lawmakers, the past principal officers of State Assembly, serving and former members of National Executive Committee, former State Working Committee members, serving and former Board of Trustee (BoT), former LG party chairmen and 2018 gubernatorial candidate and deputy.

Also, elected party officers made up of current of all state executives, all LG executives, five principal officers per ward, three Adhoc delegates per ward, all zonal executives who are in the state, one physically challenged (PCM) per local government, one National delegate per local government.

DELEGATES
Statutory as of today = 172 (Decided)
State executives =39 (decided)
Local Government executives = 288; (252 decided, 36 yet decided)
Five principal officers per ward = 885; ( 775 decided, 110 yet decided)
Three Adhoc delegates per ward = 531 (yet decided)
One physically challenged (PCM) per LG = 16 (yet decided)
One National delegate per LG = 16 (yet decided)
Zonal executives from Ekiti State = 3 (decided)
National executive = 1 (decided)
As of today, Newsflash Nigeria gathered that the total number of delegates who would vote in the party’s governorship primary election is 1,951. Out of 1,951, the total number of the delegates decided is 1,242 while 563 were undecided until Friday, January 7 to Saturday, January 8, 2022, and January 15, 2022, to elect the three-man ad-hoc delegates, one National Delegates as well as one person living with disability from each local government area.

The remaining 146 delegates from two local government areas (22 wards) may likely not vote, because the congress of the 22 wards are still pending and there is no date for allocating the congress.