LP also accused politicians from other parties of trying to cause confusion in the party because “they feel threatened.”
By Kehinde Okeowo
The Ondo State chapter of Labour Party (LP) has urged the state’s electorates to disregard a court judgment purportedly disqualifying its candidate, Olusola Ebiseni, from participating in Saturday’s gubernatorial election.
TheNiche had earlier reported that an Appeal Court sitting in Abuja on Wednesday disqualified Ebiseni from taking part in the upcoming election.
The three-member panel of justices, in a unanimous decision led by Justice Hamma Barka and delivered by Justice Adebukola Banjoko, held that “the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1172/2024 brought by the Labour Party against Chief Olusola Ebiseni and two others is allowed.”
Prior to this, a High Court judge, Justice Emeka Nwite had ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept and recognize Ebiseni and Ezekiel Awude as the Labour Party’s governorship and deputy governorship candidates, respectively, for the November 16 election.
However, the appellate court on Wednesday overturned the trial court’s judgment.
Reacting to the Appeal Court’s verdict, the Ondo State Chairperson of the LP, Mrs. Remilekun Ojo, insisted that Ebiseni cannot be disqualified, adding that the matter was internally resolved before the judgment.
ALSO READ: Appeal Court sacks LP candidate, Ebiseni four days to Ondo guber election
She went on to condemn the circulating reports that the party’s candidate was disqualified, stressing that “the reports are all lies.”
She further accused politicians from other parties of causing confusion in the Labour Party because “they feel threatened.”
Also speaking on the judgement, LP’s youth leader in the state, Samuel Boniface, corroborated his chairperson’s stance.
He went on to say the party will sue the media houses that published the misleading report.
He said, “The reports we are seeing on social media are big lies. It is so disappointing because the court had already struck out the case, and the party settled the matter out of court.
“We have decided to sue some newspapers that reported our candidate is no longer on the list. If you check the INEC portal, you will see our candidate there, so who removed him?
“With the election just two days away, such reports coming out now are disruptive, so we are suing the paper.
“Why would they claim that our candidate was removed from the race? They don’t have any evidence to support that.
“The Olorunfemi who originated the whole matter personally wrote a letter stating he had stepped down for Ebiseni. We still have that record. After signing that he stepped down, our candidate compensated him with N5 million, and the National Chairman of the party also gave him N2 million. We have receipts for all transactions.
“I can assure you that everything is very much intact. We are not distracted by this misleading news.”
