Labour Party (LP) has elected Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a former senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as its governorship candidate for Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria.
Gatekeepers News reports that Rhodes-Vivour was declared the winner of the party’s substitution primary, which took place at the State Capital, Ikeja on Wednesday.
He garnered 111 votes to defeat Moshood Salvador, a former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 102 votes.
Announcing the results, Bashiru Apapa,
The Deputy National Chairman of LP, Bashiru Apapa, who announced the results, declared Rhodes-Vivour as the winner of the exercise.
A substitution primary is conducted if the candidate for an elective position withdraws from the race, becomes incapacitated, or dies before the election.
In his acceptance speech, Rhodes-Vivour said his victory is the first step to taking over Lagos from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Meanwhile, his closest rival, Salvador has rejected the outcome of the election, alleging that some delegates who voted were not meant to participate in the primary.
Before the substitution primary, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had published the name of Ifagbemi Awamaridi as the LP governorship candidate for Lagos in the 2023 elections
However, on Monday, the LP Deputy Chairman in a press briefing, told journalists that Awamaridi had written formally to withdraw from the race.
Apapa claimed that Awamaridi was a “placeholder” for the party’s governorship candidate slot.
“That means his name can be changed for another candidate,” NAN quoted him as saying.
Although the party had earlier fixed the substitution primary for Monday following controversy over the delegates’ list, it later shifted the exercise to Wednesday.
However, Awamaridi, while speaking with Premium Times on Tuesday rejected the claim that he had withdrawn from the race, adding that he had sworn an affidavit of non-withdrawal before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
“I hereby state under oath that I did not withdraw my candidature and I am not withdrawing my candidature, and I do not intend to withdraw, and I shall not withdraw my candidature,” Awamaridi said in the affidavit dated August 5.
“I hereby state under oath that I am alive. I am not dead. I am not incapacitated and I do not consent to any obituary or any death documentation whatsoever done in my name.”
