Ifagbemi Awamaridi, the factional Lagos State governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) has sued the party to court insisting that he remains the party candidate in the 2023 general election.
Awamaridi called for the resignation of the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure because his tenure had expired, alleging that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had bribed some of the party’s national officials to remain in power to destabilize the party.
Awamaridi stated this during a press conference held in Alagbado area of Lagos on Thursday evening, where members of the State Executive Council (SEC) in his camp passed a vote of confidence on him as the state chairman of the party.
The Lagos chapter of the LP has been engulfed in crisis in recent months, since the party decided to change the Awamaridi led state executive and appoint Kayode Salako as the state chairman.
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The party also conducted another gubernatorial primary in which Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour controversially won after defeating Moshood Salvador.
This came weeks after Awamaridi, who was then state chairman had earlier conducted a gubernatorial primary in which he emerged as the party’s governorship candidate in Lagos.
Speaking at the briefing, Awamaridi said that the other party gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour was only campaigning for him because he was confident of victory in court.
He stressed that some national officers do not understand the constitution of the party which is the main reason there are issues in the various state chapters of the party.
Awamarudi added that there may be no room for reconciliation before the general election.
According to a statement to the media, “The State Executive Committee (SEC) has been operating since November 2016.
The new structure of SEC was initiated on December 1, 2018, via a congress that was held on the 7th of October 2018, which was witnessed by INEC. The State Working Committee has a four year term and the local government has a three year term.
“The State Working Committee four years expires on the 1st of December 2022, and unfortunately some ignorant lawyers say they are appointing a caretaker committee when there is a subsisting SEC.
“They set up the caretaker committee in July and back dated it to May 18. We held primary for Lagos State House of Assembly on 25th of May and that of House of Representatives primary on the 28th of May.
“You back dated a caretaker committee led by an APC man on 18th of May and submitted the same document to INEC; it means that you have been bought over by the opposition, to vitiate all the primaries done after the 18th of May.
“If you say that Kayode Salako is the state chairman since the 18th of May and he was not there when INEC conducted the primary, then you are saying that all the primaries are illegal because the 2022 Electoral Act is very clear, that was why you saw the judgment of Governor Oyetola in Osun State.
“If you say that anybody that superintends a primary is illegal that primary will become illegal, which is why I am saying that Julius Abure, the national chairman has been bribed by the opposition party.
“He has compromised the Labour Party with the opposition party. He wrote the document that an APC man is now the chairman of the Labour Party in July and back dated it to May 18th, it is fraudulent.
“After the primary I went to Abuja as the chairman of the party to present the names of the House of Representatives and Senate candidates to the national body.
“I am happy that he said it on record that I was late and not I was illegal, invariably he agreed that the person that brought the names of the candidates on the 17th of June was the chairman of the party in Lagos State.
“He was the same person who created a document that says that on the 18th of May, Salako was the chairman of the party in Lagos State. If he allows that document to subsist, the meaning is that even the concocted primary that they did where they claimed that Rhodes-Vivour is the gubernatorial candidate will be illegal”.
