Ekiti 2026: Oyebanji Reaffirms Commitment To Peaceful Poll

Ahead of the June 20 governorship election, Ekiti State Governor, My Biodun Oyebanji, has restated his commitment to peaceful conduct before, during and after the election, noting that there is no alternative to peace.

Governor Oyebanji stated this in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday when he received members of the National Peace Committee (NPC) led by its Chairman and former Head of state Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, in his office in Ado- Ekiti.

He reaffirmed his party’s unwavering commitment to ensuring a peaceful, free, and credible governorship election on June 20.

While commending members of the committee for their efforts at brokering peace and ensuring peaceful coexistence among contestants, Governor Oyebanji noted that such commitment was made about four years ago when he contested for the governorship .

He maintained that all the contestants demonstrated their commitment to that accord by behaving responsibly, a development that culminated into a peaceful election.

Governor Oyebanji said further that Ekiti cannot achieve the desired progress and reputation as one of Nigeria’s most peaceful states in an atmosphere of rancour and acrimony urging the preservation of Ekiti ethos during and after the electoral process from all stakeholders in Ekiti project.

“We understand the nexus between a peaceful society and development, we also know that if genuinely you want to serve the people, you cannot unleash violence on them. So your mandate is so crucial to what we want to achieve in this state. And I can confidently say it here, that my team, my party, and the government that I’m leading will do everything to ensure that during, before, and after the election, we maintain peace in this state.

“This is going to be my second signing of the Peace Accord. About three and a half years ago, this same programme was held in Ekiti and we made commitment to peace and in fairness after that programme, all of us were committed to that accord. All the contestants behaved responsibly, and we had a peaceful election.

“Ekiti State is 29 years old, and by October 1, we’ll be 30 years old. As far as my memory can carry me, this will be the first time that we will have an election in less than a month, and the state is this peaceful. We have never had it like this before and that speaks to the new political culture that we are trying to bring to bear in Ekiti State.

“We just concluded a local government tour of 16 local government areas of the state and for the first time, it was violence-free, and because we are the main political party, other players are also looking at us, you know, and since we, the dominant party are maintaining peace, they don’t have any other choice than to embrace peace too.”

Earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar who was represented by a member of the committee, General Martins Agwai said the team was in the state to broker peace among the major political players in the forthcoming June 20, governorship election in the drive to work together to strengthen democracy in Nigeria.

The Chairman stressed the need to strengthen electoral process to enable residents benefit from the democratic system Nigeria truly desires.

Also at the meeting were the Deputy Governor, Chief (Mrs) Monisade Afuye, the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Habibat Adubiaro, APC chairman, Barr. Olusola Eleshin, Special Adviser on Media, Mr Yinka Oyebode as well as a Nigerian Roman Catholic prelate and the Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan and Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Sokoto, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah among others.