The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says Akin Osuntokun, Director-general of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council ( PCC), remains a Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) senatorial candidate.
Recall that Osuntokun was announced as the LP campaign DG following the resignation of Doyin Okupe from that office
Okupe resigned after he was convicted of breaching the Money Laundering Act of which he paid N13 million to escape jail term.
Shortly after he was named the DG LP PCC, the media had dug out Osuntokun’s listing by INEC as the candidate of the ZLP for Ekiti central senatorial district.
But Osuntokun claimed to have abandoned his Senatorial ambition while featuring on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television, He said that his position as the LP campaign DG is a “higher calling”.
However INEC National Chairman for Information and Voter Education,, Festus Okoye clarified Friday to newsmen that Osuntokun remains the ZLP senatorial candidate as the period for withdrawal and substitution of candidates had passed.
The commission’s timetable gives July 15 as the last day for the withdrawal and substitution of candidates by political parties for presidential and national assembly elections in 2023.
Okoye said “He remains the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party. The window for withdraw 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 said.
Okoye however dissociated INEC from appointments in political parties saying “party appointments remain within the domestic realm of the parties and the commission has nothing to do with it”.
Meanwhile, the ZLP has said that the controversy Osuntokun’s appointment has generated was uncalled for.
In a statement signed by Dan Nwanyanwu, its national chairman, the party said Osuntokun resigned from the party in August 2022.
He said the embattled Labour party DG was holder of the Ekiti Senatorial ticket stating that at the time of his departure the party could not replace him as INEC window of withdrawal and replacement had closed.
“The controversy generated by the appointment of Mr Akin Osuntokun as the DG of H/E Peter OBI Campaign Organisation is uncalled for,”
“Akin Osuntokun resigned from the Zenith LABOUR Party since August 2022 and therefore no longer a member of our Party.
“Prior to his resignation from ZLP, he held the ticket as a Senatorial Candidate in Ekiti State. As at the time of his resignation, we could not replace him because the window allowed by the Electoral Act for substitution had elapsed.
“We hold no grudges because it is his fundamental right to associate and exit from any organization. We wish him well in his newfound greener pasture.
“We believe this will put to rest the barrage of inquiries to us in this regard.”
