Labor is now a hot cake as politicians jostle for its tickets

The emergence of former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi as the Labor Party's presidential candidate has surprisingly transformed the party into a beautiful bride, with many politicians jostling for his ticket. This stampede is not unrelated to Nigerians' aspirations for change from 'old and recycled leaders', especially those who see the Labor candidate as a 'beacon of hope', who will bring about the desired change they dream in the country. .

The LP, which was established in 2002, had remained relatively unknown in the country's electoral process until Dr. Olusegun Mimiko was elected on its platform as Governor of Ondo State , although he eventually returned to the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) where he was before joining LP.

Prior to Obi's emergence as LP's presidential candidate, the party had conducted primaries for governor, the National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives), and Houses of Assembly in all States between May 26 and June 8, 2022 and had posted the names of successful candidates on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal by the June 17 deadline.

However, the party lists, now the delight of politicians, sparked a major crisis, as it was alleged that the party's national leadership swapped the lists to accommodate new candidates.

The Guardian has gathered that approximately six state chapters are currently in crisis following the unilateral replacement of the names of candidates already submitted to the INEC with another set of names by the national party leadership.< /p>

States affected are Lagos, Plateau, Imo, Ebonyi, Kaduna and Enugu. The candidates, whose names had previously been submitted to INEC, were shocked by the decision of the national leadership to replace their names with the intention of advertising them as placeholders who had voluntarily withdrawn their nominations.

According to the letter written to INEC, titled: "Notice of Withdrawal and Date of Primaries", the party's national leadership informed INEC of its intention to hold replacement primaries to produce its candidates for the governorship, National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly in the 2023 general election.

LP National President Julius Abure and National Secretary Umar Farouk Ibrahim jointly signed the letter.

Some state sections of the party have since elected new pools of candidates for the general election, while others are in the process of staging the surrogate primaries, where new candidates will emerge. However, the move was met with stiff opposition from aggrieved candidates who accused the party of falsifying their withdrawal letters.

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivor

Lagos StateIn Lagos State, one of the affected candidates, Ifagbemi Awamaridi, approached the Federal High Court to prevent the party and INEC from recognizing Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour as its candidate for governor.

Rhodes-Vivour was elected Labor gubernatorial candidate in a surrogate primary, attended by INEC and later received a certificate of return from the party's National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi .

But Awamaridi called the event "comical". Still furious when called a factional candidate of the party, Awamaridi thundered, "to say that I am a factional candidate for Lagos State is a very bad statement."

While saying the election that saw Rhodes-Vivour emerge as a gubernatorial candidate is "fraudulent", Awamaridi described the return certificate given to Rhodes-Vivour as a "piece of paper", i.e. "unconstitutional and without interest."

He said he was staying...