Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has won the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket for Oyo South Senatorial District.
The result of the primary was announced on Wednesday by the Ademola Seriki who led electoral panel.
Ajimobi defeated his close rival, Fola Akinosun with 2,659 to 168 votes.
Announcing the result in the early hours of Wednesday, Seriki said that the exercise, which started around 6:30 pm on Tuesday was delayed due the late arrival of voting materials from the national headquarters of the party in Abuja.
The Oyo South senatorial district spans nine local government areas, which are Ibarapa North, Ibarapa East, Ibarapa Central, Ido, Ibadan North, Ibadan South-East, Ibadan South-West, Ibadan North-East and Ibadan North-West.
Governor Ajimobi after being declared the winner applauded the electoral committee for conducting what he described as an hitch-free and smooth primary, despite the earlier delay.
“I look forward to going back to the Red Chamber to contribute my quota to the national debate and the progress of the nation. I wish to bring to fore my parliamentary experience to grow a Nigeria that the next generation will be proud of.
“The process has just started today with my emergence as the candidate of our great party. The people of Oyo South Senatorial district should expect greater performance from me at the Senate, which will even surpass my unprecedented achievements as governor.
“As you have all witnessed, the election was free, fair and transparent. You can see that it was transparent and I am happy about it,” Ajimobi said.
Akinosun who was present at the beginning of the exercise, however, left the venue for undisclosed reasons before the final collation of the results from the nine Local Government areas.
Seriki after announcing results of the election described the exercise as another successful primary that the committee had conducted.
He said, “You heard what happened in some states that conducted the same exercise. Some were not as successful as Oyo State and I give the credit to the aspirants and the entire members of this great party for making this exercise worthwhile.
“I salute the calmness and maturity of the aspirants that have so far participated in the primaries. We look forward to further cooperation of all stakeholders in the remaining primaries.”
