The Labour Party governorship candidacy in Lagos state was thrown into a maze of controversies on Friday when the Affidavit of Non-Withdrawal of Ifagbemi Awamaridi to the Federal High Court in Abuja resurfaced on the internet, claiming legitimacy to the party’s gubernatorial candidacy in the state.
According to the affidavit, Awamaridi said he did not withdraw from the race neither is he dead to have been constitutionally replaced as stipulated by the 2022 electoral act.
Recall that LP currently parades Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who defected from the PDP in 2022 after LP’s primaries, as its gubernatorial candidate for the March 18 governorship election.
A substitution primary was thereafter conducted by the leadership of the party which saw Rhodes-Vivour declared winner after polling the highest number of votes defeating Moshood Salvador, a former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Defending why the party had to conduct a substitution primary when the primary elections had been earlier conducted, Bashiru Apapa, deputy national chairman of LP, claimed that Awamaridi had written formally to withdraw from the race.
He said that Awamaridi was a “placeholder” for the party’s governorship candidate slot.
Rebuffing the claims, Awamiridi said the substitution primary was illegal.
“I call the substitution primary conducted on Wednesday a comedy because it was against the new Electoral Act to substitute a candidate without his withdrawal notice to the INEC,” he said.
“If it were to be the substitution in the old Electoral Act, after conducting primaries, the party in its wisdom can change the candidate that won without his or her consent.
“Then, there is always a window for substitution which is different from the window for withdrawal, and the window for substitution is where you can substitute without withdrawal.
“However, the window for withdrawal is different but the new Electoral Act has nullified that because this new act now says that once you have conducted primaries supervised by INEC, you are automatically the candidate.
“What can change it is death and even the withdrawal must not be under duress. Besides, I had gone to court to declare that I have not withdrawn and I am not dead but alive, so, what else.
“It was even alleged that some people want to print my obituary and that is what I heard, and I quickly ran to INEC to show myself that I am alive.”