INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said that Osuntokun remains the ZLP senatorial candidate as the period for withdrawal and substitution of candidates had passed.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council, Akin Osuntokun, is still the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) senatorial candidate for Ekiti Central, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Friday.
Since the Tuesday announcement of Osuntokun as Doyin Okupe’s replacement as DG of the LP’s Presidential Campaign Council, there have been allegations that Osuntokun did not officially defect to LP from ZLP.
Osuntokun, in his defence, explained that he had abandoned his senatorial ambition under ZLP to take up Peter Obi’s campaign DG role.
READ ALSO:
Osuntokun not our member, ZLP says
But INEC Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said that Osuntokun remains the ZLP senatorial candidate as the period for withdrawal and substitution of candidates had passed.
According to INEC’s timetable for the 2023 elections, July 15 was the last day for the withdrawal and substitution of candidates by political parties for presidential and national assembly elections.
“He remains the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party. The window for withdrawal and substitution based on our timetable and the Electoral Act 2022 has closed.
“No candidate can withdraw, and none can come in except through a court order,” Okoye was quoted as saying by The Nation.
The ZLP, meanwhile, has said Osuntokun resigned from the party in August 2022.
