Ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Ondo State, the Labour Party has urged Nigerians, particularly the electorate, to disregard a court judgment purportedly disqualifying its candidate, Olusola Ebiseni, from the race.
DAILY POST recalls that the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court on Wednesday disqualified Ebiseni as the Labour Party candidate for the upcoming election.
The three-member panel of justices, in a unanimous decision led by Justice Hamma Barka and delivered by Justice Adebukola Banjoko, held that “the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024 brought by the Labour Party against Chief Olusola Ebiseni and two others is allowed.”
DAILY POST further recalls that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja had previously ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and recognize Olusola Ebiseni and Ezekiel Awude as the Labour Party’s governorship and deputy governorship candidates, respectively, for the Saturday election.
According to Justice Nwite, the second primary election that produced Ebiseni and Awude as candidates was valid and should be upheld by INEC.
Justice Nwite noted that there was evidence Ebiseni paid N20 million for the nomination form and was duly issued a form leading to the conduct of the second primary election.
He also observed that the party directed Ebiseni to pay N5 million to one Festus Olorunfemi as compensation for his withdrawal from the race.
Justice Nwite thus ordered INEC to accept the nominations of Ebiseni and Awude and to publish their names as the Labour Party’s lawful candidates for the Ondo State governorship election scheduled for November 16.
However, the appellate court on Wednesday overturned the trial court’s judgment.
They’re all lies; we resolved matters before the judgment – Ondo LP Chairperson
When contacted by DAILY POST on Thursday, the Ondo State Chairperson of the Labour Party, Mrs. Remilekun Ojo, said the candidate cannot be disqualified, insisting that the matter was internally resolved before the judgment.
She condemned the circulating reports that the party’s candidate was disqualified, stressing that “the reports are all lies.”
She accused politicians from other parties of causing confusion in the Labour Party because “they feel threatened.”
I was offered N100m to collapse my party structure to PDP – LP youth leader alleges
The Labour Party youth leader in Ondo State, Hon. Samuel Boniface, alleged that some desperate politicians eyeing the party’s structure approached him ahead of the election.
In an interview with DAILY POST, Boniface claimed he rejected an over N100 million offer from some bigwigs in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to collapse the LP structure into their party.
“As the state youth leader of the Labour Party, three weeks ago, some PDP stakeholders contacted me, asking me to collapse the Labour Party structure into their party. They asked me to name any amount from N100 million, but I declined because I have a goal. I have my own future. I can’t sell my conscience like that.
“I also told them that I will never betray my followers and my party. When I contested for the House of Reps in 2023, they did the same thing, but I told them that I’d rather lose the election than sell my conscience.
“They are doing everything possible to buy the structure. They are ready to offer any amount. But I strongly believe that if we stand our ground, they won’t succeed. Everyone is tired of both APC and PDP.”
We’re suing media platforms over the purported sacking of our candidate – Boniface
The youth leader also corroborated the LP Chairperson’s stance on the Appeal Court judgment nullifying Ebiseni’s candidacy.
He stated, “The reports we are seeing on social media are big lies. It is so disappointing because the court had already struck out the case, and the party settled the matter out of court.
“We have decided to sue some newspapers that reported our candidate is no longer on the list. If you check the INEC portal, you will see our candidate there, so who removed him?
“With the election just two days away, such reports coming out now are disruptive, so we are suing the paper.
“Why would they claim that our candidate was removed from the race? They don’t have any evidence to support that.
“The Olorunfemi who originated the whole matter personally wrote a letter stating he had stepped down for Ebiseni. We still have that record. After signing that he stepped down, our candidate compensated him with N5 million, and the National Chairman of the party also gave him N2 million. We have receipts for all transactions.
“I can assure you that everything is very much intact. We are not distracted by this misleading news.”