Lawmaker representing Oyo Central District, Senator  Teslim Folarin, has won the Oyo State governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 election.

Folarin was declared winner by the Secretary of the Primary Committee,  who served as the Returning Officer, Dr Abdullahi Abubarkar Kuso.

The Oyo Central senator had 954 votes in a contest that ran late into Friday night at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium formerly Liberty Stadium, Oke Ado, Ibadan. 11 votes were declared void.

However two aspirants, Chief Adeniyi Akintola and the 2019 APC candidate in Oyo, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, were not at the primary. Three other aspirants, Dr Azeez Adeduntan, Akeem Alao and Akeem Agbaje were present and participated in the exercise.

Ex-Minister of Communication, Adebayo Shittu was also at the primary.

Chief Akintola had on Thursday, when the exercise was postponed after some irreconcilable issues regarding the delegate list staged a parallel primary where he claimed to have emerged.

Akintola had also announced he would not be participating at the primary alleging that the process was skewed to favour a particular aspirant.

He also on Friday submitted a petition to the Primary Appeal Committee, claiming that he had emerged winner at a primary, which held at Trans Amusement Park, Ibadan on Thursday, which was the day the national Secretariat fixed for the election.

Other scores as announced by the Kuso are Akeem Alao, six votes, Adebayo Adelabu,  327 votes, Dr Azeez Adeduntan,  two votes, Akeem Agbaje 15 votes and Adeniyi Akintola no vote. The result was announced at about 10:48PM.

The election which started around 8:45 pm lasted barely 45mins as all the Senatorial districts were organised to vote simultaneously.

Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Chairman of the committee  announced end of voting at about 9:33 pm after the last delegate cast their votes.

The sorting of the votes started at about 9:45 pm in the presence of agents of the aspirants.

The Primary election was monitored officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Security agencies among other stakeholders.

Some of the delegates left the main bowl of the stadium shortly after casting their votes due to the lateness of the process, while some others waited.

The announcement of the winner resulted in wild jubilation by the delegates who stormed the field to celebrate and embrace the winner

The election earlier fixed for Thursday could not hold after the Senator Afikuyomi led committee pointed security reasons.

To prevent a repeat of Thursday situation where the stadium was mobbed, the committee in collaboration with the aspirants and party leadership earlier held an accreditation exercise for the delegates at Jogor Event Centre, a few minutes drive from the stadium.

Earlier on Thursday, discrepancies was also generated when the Committee met the aspirants at a closed door meeting at Premier Hotel, Ibadan where issue of doctored delegate lists came up.

Addressing the delegates and other stakeholders before the commencement of the Friday primary election, Senator Afikuyomi thanked all the stakeholders including, delegates, aspirants, security operatives, media, national leadership of the party, management of the Obafemi Awolowo stadium among others for the overwhelming support that made the process go as planned.

In his victory speech, Folarin commended the delegates for their efforts, saying, his main task is to get the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Seyi Makjnde out of power in 2023.

He enjoined other aspirants to stay in the party so as to work with him in the interest of APC and the people of Oyo who were yearning for change.

He expressed readiness to visit other aspirants and others who may be aggrieved by the result noting that the party must remain united.

However, there are strong indications that some members of the progressives tendency in Oyo APC are likely to defect to another platform following Folarin’s victory.

One of them disclosed to The Guardian in anger that the national leadership of APC, has a lot to do to pacify the aggrieved, otherwise those who might decide to remain are likely going to work against Folarin’s victory at the gubernatorial poll.