Ekiti Poll: Group says Oyebanji may win 75 percent votes
SWICAM storm Moba, Ilejemeje, Ido Osi
Omolade Adegbuyi
The Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Oyebanji may win by a landslide hitting no less than 75 percent of the voters, the South West Independent Campaign Movement, (SWICAM) said on Thursday.
The regional campaign outfit said it was necessary to let the world know that the opposition in Ekiti is weak, fragile, lacking in strategy and completely isolated from the ordinary people on the streets.
Kickstarting the canpaign in Moba, the SWICAM leaders were received by the paramount ruler of Mobaland, His Majesty, Oba Dr. Adekunle Adeayo Adeagbo, Ilufemiloye who praised the effort of the group. The Oore urged Nigerians to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Ekiti State Governor, Abiodun Oyebanji. He commended them for their milestones in the area of economy and public safety.
The group said from its experience in the field of campaign in the past months, the opposition appears to be timid, scared, jittery and confused making it difficult for them to wage any meaningful campaign.
SWICAM was set up in 2025 as an independent group to campaign for progressives across the South West States. Members are drawn from the civil society, Pan Yoruba groups, Agbekoya, students, workers, women and the elderly.
‘SWICAM has touched 70 percent of local governments in Ekiti State and the campaign continues. What we see is that the All Progressive Congress, (APC) has overwhelming dominance over the coming elections scheduled for June 20, 2026. The opposition parties have no campaign documents, no rallies, no door-to-door campaigns, no meetings and no constructive engagements with the people,’ Abiodun Faleye the SCICAM Secretary in Ekiti said.
He spoke at Otun while leading the SWICAM campaign in Moba, Ilejemeje, Ido-Osi Local Government Areas on Thursday. Hundreds of SWICAM volunteers have been visiting strategic communities, meeting people in the organised sector apart from visiting villages and towns especially on market days.
The pamphlets are in thousands categorised for students, workers, teachers, civil servants, non-Yoruba population, Northerners, South-South and South East resident in Ekiti State. The group also prepared well-written letters to all the traditional rulers and all the town and village unions in Ekiti State seeking their support for Oyebanji’s relection.
‘Everywhere we go, locals meet us telling us that there is no opposition to the APC. In many instances, the SWICAM campaign documents were distributed enthusiastically by members of Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Labour Party, African Democratic Congress, (ADC)’
Faleye said ‘what appears like a ‘cricket opposition’ is the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP led by Dr Wole Oluyede. But the party is not campaigning. The members are nowhere to be found. They cannot even produce posters for voters to see the face of the candidate. They are also nowhere to be found on social media, neither in the mainstream media.’
He said SWICAM had one of the most successful campaigns so far in Ikere, the birthplace of Dr Oluyede with many of his supporters trooping out to collect Oyebanji’s sovenirs and also distribute the thousands of Education, Information and Communication, [IEC] materials explaining to the people while Oyebanji is the best candidate in the June 20 race.
Speaking at the rallies, Mrs Bisi Abegunde said in most places visited, the PDP members claimed they could not remember the name of their Gubernatorial candidates adding that in many instances the PDP members said their votes would go to Oyebanji since the two most outstanding PDP leaders in Ekiti State, Mr Ayo Fayose and Segun Oni were already campaigning for Oyebanji while the two former PDP Nigerian Presidents, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Jonathan are sustaining suspicious distance from the PDP.
