24 hours after the All Progressives Congress senatorial primary election in Ekiti State, the aspirants in the North Senatorial District including former senator, Ayodele Arise, the incumbent, Cyril Fasuyi and Dare Owolabi have traded words over the outcome of the poll.

While Senator Arise and Owolabi rejected the result announced by the APC Senatorial Primary Election Committee, alleging manipulation and falsification of figures, Senator Fasuyi dismissed the claims and urged the former lawmaker to accept the outcome in good faith.

The APC committee had declared Fasuyi winner of the primary with 14,179 votes, while Arise polled 4,868 votes. Other aspirants, Dipo Bamisaye and Dare Owolabi, secured 3,694 and 2,836 votes respectively.

Addressing journalists separately on Tuesday, Arise and Owolabi insisted that they won the shadow poll based on results collated from 33 wards where voting exercise was completed.

According to Arise, the results from 33 wards showed that he scored 8,687 votes against Fasuyi’s 7,755 votes before the process was allegedly disrupted in several areas.

According to him, election officials abandoned the exercise in 12 wards when it became obvious he was leading, while officials failed to show up in 10 other wards across the district.

He also alleged that some ward results were altered to favour Senator Fasuyi, citing Iludun I Ward in Ilejemeje Local Government Area where he claimed votes recorded for him were reduced in the final declaration.

“I won the election and I have proof. I was rigged out by the system. The result does not represent the wishes of the people. What happened yesterday was fraught with irregularities, fraud, violence and intimidation,” Arise stated.

“Our formal petition to the APC National Working Committee is being filed with documentary evidence, ward-level results, affidavits and records from our monitoring system. I won the election and I have proof. I was rigged out by the system,” he stated.

Also speaking, another aspirant from the Ekiti North, Mr Dare Owolabi has rejected the primary election results, calling for its cancellation.

The aspirant said that the irregularities that characterized the shadow election were planned, while the figures announced do not exist.

Owolabi said that if the original figures from the wards where the election took place were announced he would have won the election with 4,341 votes.

“The election is not fair and there are a lot of irregularities across different local governments, different wards, different units.

We know our people, we know what they did, we know how people voted for us, we know our people are terrorized and chased out of the venues.”

He however urged his supporters to remain calm adding that the primary elections have gone and passed. “We will fight the battle in the primary elections soon, but I want attention to be focused on the governorship election that is coming up next month for all parties to join hands and bring back our governor.”

But reacting to the allegations, Senator Fasuyi described the claims as baseless and urged Arise and Owolabi to accept the outcome of the election in the interest of the party.

“I want to appeal to a respected leader of our great party, Senator Arise, to accept the outcome of the primary election in good faith and join hands with us to move the party forward,” he said.

The senator, who is also the Director-General of Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s re-election campaign, questioned why anyone would expect him to lose the primary election as the incumbent lawmaker.

“I’m the incumbent senator representing Ekiti North and also the Director-General of Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s re-election campaign. I have remained actively connected to the grassroots and the people know the efforts we have made. So, why would anybody expect me to lose the primary?” he asked. (The Guardian)

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Varsity student kidnapped in Akwa Ibom, abductors refuse to release him after collecting ransom

A 300-level Theatre Arts student of the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Utibe Asian, has reportedly been kidnapped.

It was gathered that Asian, who hails from Obio Etoi in Uyo Local Government Area, went missing from home after he was called by a friend on 09066935255 on 2 December last year.

A family source said N500,000 ransom was paid to his abductors in Uyo metropolis, but he was not released.

Narrating the incident to our Correspondent on Tuesday in Uyo, the father of the victim, Pastor Aniefiok Asian said the above cell phone number called Utibe and he went out to see them at an undisclosed location and never returned home till date .

Asian disclosed that the abductors called him on 3rd December and demanded for N30m ransom and later reduced it to N500,000 which was hurriedly paid to a Moniepoint PoS account number 5631337489 with account name as Uzor Onuoha Enterprise Bank on 13th December , 2025 for the son to regain his freedom but was not released as expected.

He said after the payment, the kidnappers did not call him and other family members and nothing was heard from the son.

Asian explained that before the ransom was paid, the crime was reported to Anti Kidnapping Unit of Akwa Ibom Police Command on the 5th December, 2025 while his statement was duly obtained by one Mrs Jumbo with phone number 08063171321 and Investigative Police Officer (IPO) assigned to follow up the kidnapping case.

The petition reads in parts: “On Wednesday 3rd December, 2025 Mr Utibe Aniefiok Asian was abducted by unknown persons within Uyo metropolis.

"Since the incident we have received calls from unidentified person believe to be the abductor, his phone No. 09066935255 he also uses my son’s phone no 09010911529 to call us

"The first day, he demanded N30m as ransom and gradually reduced it to N500,000.00 which was paid to him through transfer to PoS Moniepoint account no 56313337489 within account name as Uzor Onuoha Enterprise Bank on 13th December, 2025.

"I was directed to prepare and go to Abak and pick my child back home. Since that day of payment, the abductor did not call again, neither did my son's voice.”

Asian said he had reported the incident to Akwa Ibom state Commissioner for Internal Security Retd Major General Uko Essien and the matter was swept under the carpet.

Asian while speaking to our Reporter with tears rolling down his cheeks said having appeared frustrated and disappointed, he wrote the same petition to the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom Baba Mohammad Azare titled “Report of Suspected Kidnapping In Uyo.”

He said the same incident was reported to the Department of State Security in the state but all to no avail as the security agencies could not track the kidnappers even with some clues submitted to them.

Asian said the current situation is very dicey as he does not know the whereabouts of son and his abductors.

He therefore urged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to intervene by using all security apparatus within his reach to rescue his son and trace the abductors.

"I still believe that the security agencies can do their work and I want the IGP to form a rescue team to bring back my son.

"At least, I should know the perpetrators and they should be úbrought to book.”

Reacting to the incident, Akwa Ibom State Police Commissioner Baba Azare told our reporter that the kidnapping case has not been reported to the command.

"I have advised the father of the victim to report through our official channels. Once that is done, we will follow up immediately." (Vanguard)

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