BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The exclusion of the names of the Ogun State Labour Party governorship and house of assembly candidates by the Independent National Electoral Commission from its list ahead of the 2023 election, will not hinder the party from going ahead with its campaigns, the Labour Party has said.
The list published by the electoral body and pasted at its office in Abeokuta, had the names of governorship and deputy governorship candidates of 13 political parties each scheduled to participate in next year’s election, along with the names of candidates from 26 political parties that would take part in the house of assembly elections, excluding those of the Labour Party.
However, speaking to The Point, the state party chairman, Ashade Michael Oluseyi said, “For now, all I can tell you is that we are already in talks with INEC on that issue. I don’t want to talk much on it, let’s regard it as sub judice until when it is solved before we give a formal statement on that.
“We are not taking it lying low, we are already taking it up the proper way. So, once we have the result, it will justify our position and we’ll let Nigerians know the true situation. We are not deterred; we are still moving on with our own work, our activities are still going on. We are still meeting with stakeholders and the populace,” he added.
The chairman wondered why the REC would allege that the party had no candidate for the election when the electoral body was well represented at the primary.
“Everyone was there, security agents, the press, INEC officials were there. So, how could INEC still come forward to be making such a statement? We are not joining issues with INEC, we recognise them as a credible institution but that statement by the REC is something we’ll address when the time comes,” he said.
Ashade however expressed confidence that INEC won’t have a choice than to include its candidates for the various elective positions in the list as it conducted primaries for all the elective positions and the exclusion had no basis.
“It is clear, INEC will be compelled to reverse that position because we have candidates for all elective positions and the primaries were duly conducted by the same umpire, INEC. So there was no reason for the omission or exclusion.
The governorship candidates of the various parties for the 2023 general election in Ogun State as published by INEC include Dapo Abiodun of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Ladi Adebutu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP); Ojeshina Anthony of the Social Democratic Party; Okusanya Adedeji of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP); Adelanwa Kayemilola of the African Democratic Congress (ADC); and Harrison Adeyemi of the African Action Congress (AAC).
Others include Falana Olufemi of the All Peoples Party (APP); Shokunbi Kazeem; of the Action Democratic Party (ADP); Ogunrombi Tofunmi of the National Rescue Movement, NRM; Adebisi Oyewale of the ACCORD party, Jolaoluwa Olutosin of the Allied People’s Movement (APM); Kassim Jakie of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), and Iskil-Ogunyomi Safiat of the Action Alliance (AA).
