Olusola Ebiseni, the Labour Party’s candidate in the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State, has dismissed any controversy surrounding his candidacy.
In an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today on Thursday, Ebiseni addressed the issue following a recent court ruling.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had disqualified him as the LP candidate in a judgment delivered by a three-member panel, chaired by Justice Adebukola Banjoko, on Wednesday.
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However, Ebiseni rejected the ruling, explaining that a former candidate of the party had voluntarily withdrawn from the race due to financial difficulties, which he believes should have been taken into account.
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He said, “The issue of who conducted my primary is not an issue. It was the national working committee of the party then. At the end of April, the Labour Party in Ondo had no candidate. It was then resolved. The party put somebody as a placeholder to be substituted later.
“All the political parties have an emerging culture. The candidates are from the south senatorial district where I came from. Check all the political parties. The Labour Party then decided to bring somebody from the north senatorial district. That is where Dr Femi was. At the end of it, the party now wants to get a substantive candidate. Femi voluntarily withdrew his candidature by affidavit to that effect.
“He told his running mate that he had consulted widely and come to the conclusion that for one reason or the other he was no longer the candidate. I took the nomination form. I paid N20 million. The party gave its UBA account number and I paid.
“According to the Electoral Act, the substitution primary had to be conducted within 14 days. It was held in Akure on the 18th of July. At that time, I became the governorship candidate of the party. The only issue was that INEC refused to upload my name and we went to INEC. I made the Labour Party the first plaintiff, myself the second plaintiff and my running mate the third plaintiff.
“In the course of the case, the national legal advisor got to court with a motion. They were having problems with INEC but they were not obliged to sue INEC. They said, please remove our name. We don’t want to confront INEC. All they asked for was for the Labour Party’s name to be removed. But that does not affect my locus standi and the candidate of the party.”
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