Obi’s Campaign DG, Osuntokun, Remains ZLP’s Senatorial Candidate – INEC

Obi’s Campaign DG, Osuntokun, Remains ZLP’s Senatorial Candidate – INEC

INEC, Nigeria’s electoral commission, has insisted that Akin Osuntokun, the newly appointed Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign Director-General (DG), remain the senatorial candidate for Ekiti Central Senatorial Zone under a different political party, the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

Following the resignation of the previous DG, Doyin Okupe, Mr Osuntokun was appointed as the campaign’s director-general.

Mr Okupe resigned after a Federal High Court in Abuja found him guilty of violating the Money Laundering Act.

In an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, Mr Osuntokun stated that he had dropped his senatorial bid with the ZLP in order to become Peter Obi’s campaign director.

However, the electoral commission stated that neither Mr Osuntokun nor his party are permitted to withdraw their candidacy.

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Festus Okoye, INEC’s Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, told Premium Times that Mr Osuntokun is still ZIP’s Ekiti Central Senatorial candidate.

Mr Okoye stated that no individual or political party can withdraw, submit, or substitute the name of any candidate running in the 2023 general elections at this time.

He stated that for INEC to change the names of candidates who have already been submitted, a court of law must issue an order.

“The law is very clear,” he said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

“The period for substitution and the period for withdrawal in our (INEC) timetable and schedule of activities as well as in the electoral act, has elapsed.”

He added that the legality or otherwise of Mr Osuntokun’s appointment as LP’s presidential campaign DG is not within INEC’s purview but the internal structure of the political parties.

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