Ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Lagos State, trouble seems to be building up within the Labour Party (LP) over who the authentic governorship candidate of the Party is.
Ifagbemi Awamaridi, a chieftain of the Party, on Thursday insisted that he remains the Party’s governorship candidate in the State.
In a press briefing in Lagos, Awamaridi denied withdrawing from the race, indicating that the matter is still before the Supreme Court.
The development would cause fresh worries for Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour who has been campaigning and gained publicity as the Lagos LP governorship candidate for Saturday’s election.
While insisting he did not withdraw from the governorship race contrary to claims by some leaders of the Party, he claimed he won the Party’s governorship primary in July 2022.
“In July 2022, INEC published the name of the Labour party candidate and the name is Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi based on the fact that I won the primary,” he said.
“The party forwarded the name to INEC around July 5 and INEC published the name around July 25 and that name subsists.
“Later on, I discovered that the name has changed and some party leaders decided to organise a substitution primary and claimed that I have withdrawn,” he added.
According to him, he had written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that he had not withdrawn from the race, and is waiting for the verdict of the Supreme Court in the matter.
However, the chairman of the Lagos LP, Dayo Ekong told members of the public to ignore Awamaridi as he is being used by the opposition to disrupt the party, insisting he is not the authentic candidate of the Labour Party.
