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The Labour Party has called on Nigerians to ignore a recent court judgment allegedly disqualifying its candidate in the Ondo State gubernatorial election scheduled for Saturday, Olusola Ebiseni.
The party maintains that Ebiseni remains in the running despite the Appeal Court’s ruling on Wednesday.
Recall that the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court on Wednesday overturned a previous Federal High Court decision validating Ebiseni’s candidacy. Justice Emeka Nwite had ruled that Ebiseni and his running mate, Ezekiel Awude, were the legitimate Labour Party candidates, citing evidence of Ebiseni’s N20 million payment for the nomination form and his compensation of N5 million to Festus Olorunfemi for withdrawing from the race.
However, the Appeal Court’s three-member panel, led by Justice Hamma Barka, unanimously allowed an appeal against Ebiseni’s candidacy.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party has denied the reports. According to Ondo State Chairperson Remilekun Ojo, the reports are “lies” emanating from opposition parties.
He stated, “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.”