Barely 48 hours to the governorship and State Assembly elections, the National Coordinator, Labour Party Concerned Stakeholders, Mr. Ifagbemi Awamaridi, has surfaced to lay claim to the party’s ticket for the March 18 poll.
Awamaridi made the claim at a news briefing on Thursday, to round off his electioneering campaign.
Awamaridi said he never withdrew from the governorship race as claimed by some National leaders of the party.
He said he remains the party’s bona fide flag bearer in Lagos State, after emerging winner in the State primary election in July 2022.
Awamaridi said his name was forwarded to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the party leadership.
“In July 2022, INEC published the name of Labour party candidate and the name is Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi based on the fact that I won the primaries.
“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that the name has changed and some party leaders decided to organise a substitution primary and claimed that I have withdrawn,” he alleged.
Awamaridi said he had replied INEC that he had not withdrawn from the race, adding that a candidate could only withdraw on a signed Letter of Oath or Form 11B of INEC.
He said that the party was trying to change a lot of things in the country and INEC irregularities would not be excluded.
He alleged that the the party had issues of forged documents in 22 states, including Edo and Ebonyi , in connivance with some INEC officials.
He, therefore, urged the Nigeria Police to look into the issue of forged documents by some national officers and charge them to court.
According to Awamaridi, the matter of his candidacy is before the Supreme Court.
However, Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of Labour Party, Mrs. Dayo Ekong, refuted claims that Awamaridi is the party’s candidate for the March 18 election.
Ekong told Journalists that Awamaridi is being used by the ruling party to cause confusion in Labour Party.
– NAN