Lagos Labour Party Candidate challenges gubernatorial election results

The Labour Party Candidate in the last gubernatorial election in Lagos State, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour has vowed to challenge the outcome of the election in the court.

Rhodes-Vivour decried the level of lawlessness that characterised the electoral process on Saturday, March 18th which he described as diabolical.

Speaking at a World Press Conference on the ‘Governorship Election and Irregularities’ he said that the need to have an election that is devoid of skirmishes becomes imperative for the future of democracy.

He said that Judiciary is hope of the common man and would do the needful, stressing that the party is heading to court because it has copious of evidence to show for it.

“We are going to fight it with all legal means because now, more than ever, Lagos is in desperate need for us to birth our Lagos, a lagos that is Accountable, Open, Law abiding, Holy, Pure, the state that believes in law and empathy, a lagos where people are allowed to express themselves regardless of who they want to vote for.

“And My family literarily laid the foundation for judiciary in this country and I have alot of faith in judiciary and believe they will do the right thing. We cannot afford to be silent, we cannot associate with hooliganism in election period.”

“Our situation room showed that we have about 900,000 votes compare to what they announced for us and we also saw alot of violence and suppressions.” he said

He maintained that what they are complaining about is not about the number, but the process that led to it and it is evidence-based.

According to him “We are compiling our case, my legal team is on top of it. Our message was about empathy, love, good governance that is open and accountable.

We have plethora of video and photo evidence, we know our polling units agents and supporters, we have agents all across Lagos State, it’s not a speculation.”

Judicial process
He further explained that the judiciary is aware of all of the inadequacies recorded during the just concluded election and understands the importance of peace and their role as a path to define peace in the country.

Gbadebo who noted that the party would follow the court process all the way to the Supreme Court, however appealed to the President of the Appeal court to choose men of good characters for the tribunal hearings.

Caring platform
He said his party has launched a platform to capture those who suffered one attack or the other during the last election, stressing that their bills would be offset by the party.

He said: “We have launched the platform GRV cares 2023 and anyone who have suffered violence should upload their picture, hospital bills and police report and we will help towards offsetting these bills.”

He insisted that most of the prospective voters in many parts of the State were disallowed to exercise their civic duties as a result of violence during the last polls.

“We cannot afford to have an agberocracy or a military type of government that will use violence and diabolical means to create a one-party state; from Ikoyi to Ikeja to Ikorodu, we were all disenfranchised.

“This was no election, it was violence on multiple levels, diabolically and physically.
Lagosian, our enemy are not our neighbors or visitors, or fellow Lagosian with diverse tongues. Our common enemy is violence, insecurity, poverty, stagnation, corruption, and underdevelopment.

The Labour Party Governorship Candidate however promised that his next line of action is to strengthen the party structure and bring new voters demographics into the ballot boxes.

He however thanked residents of Lagos for their courage and for making decisions based
on hope and resisting fear that preserve democracy and protect the future.

N.O