The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) are missing from the final list of candidates released on Monday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the June 20 governorship election in Ekiti State.
According to a document sighted the names of the PDP governorship candidate, Dr. Wole Oluyede and his SDP counterpart David Bankole, were exempted from the list released by INEC.
It was reliabily learnt that the exclusion of PDP and SDP candidates were due to the pending court cases over the parties’ leadership, which are yet to be resolved.
According to the list, 12 political parties met the requirements to participate in the election, following the exclusion of the PDP and SDP from the final list of candidates.
According to the document released by the electoral umpire, the All Progressives Congress (APC) is fielding the incumbent governor, Biodun Oyebanji (58), with Mrs Monisade Afuye (67), as his the running mate.
Other candidates include: Opeyemi Falegan (41) of the Accord Party, who is running with Omoyeni Bayode (48); Akande Oluwasegun (36) of the African Action Congress, paired with Oluwasanmi Fajuyigbe; and Ayodeji Ojo (42) of the Action Democratic Party, with Itunu Ibitoye (35) as his running mate.
The African Democratic Congress is presenting Oluwadare Bejide (66) and Babatola Ayodeji (65), Bidemi Awogbemi (36) and Akinyemi Adewumi (53) of the Action People’s Party; and Joseph Anifowose (65) with Margaret Ilesanmi (68) of the Allied People’s Movement (APM).