Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
The Labour Party in Kwara State, yesterday, suspended its governorship candidate for Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections, Comrade Basambo Abubakar, until further notice for alleged anti-party activities and disseminating misleading information to members of the public.
Basambo had on Monday alligned with the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) governorship candidate, Alhaji Shuaib Yaman Abdullahi for this Saturday’s gubernatorial poll in the state.
He said that the union was expected to birth a collective dream for a prosperous Kwara state.
Since then, the LP in the state has been factionalised into two groups.
Addressing journalists in Ilorin, the state Labour Party chairman, Comrade Kehinde Rotimi, said the party had not aligned with any governorship candidate or political party in the state for the Saturday governorship elections.
Rotimi, who said the suspended Labour Party governorship candidate acted against what the party stood for, added that he had no such authorities to have announced alignment of Labour Party with any political party in the state.
The party chairman, who enjoined members of the public to disregard the statement credited to its governorship candidate, said all House of Assembly candidates of the party were still in the race, and urged the electorate to troop out en masse on Saturday to vote Labour Party.
“We’re here to set the record straight. Labour Party is a political party with ideology, based on social justice and equality. Labour Party had not adopted candidacy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate, Shuaib Yaman Abdulahi, as said by Basambo Abubakar. He has no such authority to issue such statement on behalf of the party.
“We’re in a very sober mood right now, because of our presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, who was massively voted for by Nigerians, but Nigerian system came into being as usual.
“Currently, he’s challenging the result of the election in court. So, it’s morally wrong for us to come out and say we’re adopting another party for governorship election against the wish of our presidential candidate,” he said.
