The National Working Committee of Labour Party (LP) yesterday dropped Sina Kawonise, former managing director of Compass Newspapers and the former commissioner for information in the Gbenga Daniel administration in Ogun State, as its gubernatorial candidate, for Abolaji Sunmola, maritime consultant.
But Kawonise has kicked against the NWC’s decision, insisting that he was the sole aspirant that attended the affirmative congress held in Abeokuta in December last year which was witnessed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), just as he threatened legal action against the decision.
Speaking with journalists in Abeokuta, Sunday Oginni, secretary of Labour Party in the state, declared that the party had replaced the name of the party chairman in the state, Olabode Simeon, earlier submitted with the name of Abolaji Sunmola, aged 54, an indigene of Gbagura in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of the state.
According to Oginni, “The national leadership of the party has the final say on the choice of gubernatorial candidate and they have chosen Abolaji Sunmola as the party’s standard bearer for gubernatorial election”, adding, “The party has also announced a retired teacher from Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area, Bolanle Bonajo, as the running mate.”
While speaking on the criteria for the choice of the gubernatorial candidate, he said: “We looked at the curriculum vitae of all the aspirants before we chose Sunmola because he is a unionist and a labour leader of maritime force. We need somebody from Ogun State that is independent. We believe his candidacy is a total break from the past.”
However, Kawonise affirmed that he remained the lawful gubernatorial candidate of the party in the state, saying, “My attention has been drawn to an illegality committed by the National Working Committee of the Labour Party in submitting the name of a certain Abolaji Sunmola to the Independent National Electoral Commission as Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in Ogun State.
“I was the sole aspirant that attended the affirmative congress of the Labour Party in Abeokuta on December 10, 2014. The congress that returned me as the gubernatorial candidate was witnessed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Directorate of State Security (DSS), the police and the mass media.”
