Some aggrieved members said the leadership of the party has shown that there is no difference between it and other political parties it had been condemning.
A fresh crisis is currently brewing in the Lagos chapter of the Labour Party (LP) over the alleged imposition of candidates for the 2023 elections.
Some aggrieved members said the leadership of the party has shown that there is no difference between it and other political parties it had been condemning.
“We refused to believe in PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) and APC (All Progressives Congress) because they impose candidates on party members, so we moved to Labour Party and other lesser but more democratic parties or what we thought.
“After the leadership of these parties took our money, we realized that we will have to displace others, who had laboured for the party. Although we were persecuted in PDP and APC, we see nothing wrong in coming to Labour Party with our supporters and turning them into members of the new party without first educating them, and inducting them into the clauses of the manifesto of the new party.
“We the oppressed now become the oppressor in our new party. Against the above, Labour Party, Lagos, has shown that there is no difference between it and the other political parties it had been condemning.
“Ayodele Ademiluyi, Esq and over 23 members of Labour Party, Lagos, emerged from a convention organized by Labour Party, Lagos State only for their names to be substituted by Labour Party National while submitting names of candidates to INEC,” a Labour Party member said.
Meanwhile, some of the aggrieved aspirants had approached the Federal High Court in Lagos over the matter.
The aspirants are seeking an order of the court to include them as candidates for “elections into the respective senatorial and House of Representatives’ Constituencies to wit, National Assembly seats for 2023 General elections”.
They are also asking “Whether the 1st Respondent ought to submit the names of the Applicants, who were the successful candidates emergent from the Primaries of the Senatorial and House of Representatives Constituencies held at the Lagos State Chapter of the Labour Party to the 2nd Respondent.
“Whether the 2nd Respondent ought to be ordered by this Honourable Court to include the Applicants as Candidates for elections into the respective Senatorial and House of Representatives’ Constituencies to wit, National Assembly seats for 2023 General elections”. They noted that “where the questions are resolved in favour of the Applicants, the Applicants seek 3 relieves among which are; a declaration of this honourable court that the failure, refusal and neglect of the 2nd Respondent to include the names of the Applicants on the Final List of Candidates is a violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 as amended) and the Electoral Act (2022 as amended).”
They seek “an order of this honorable court ordering the 2nd Respondent to include the names of the Applicants on the List of Candidates for National Assembly seats for the 2023 General Elections in compliance with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 as amended) and provisions of the Electoral Act (2022 as amended.”