The Labour Party gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, has announced that the party has petitioned the International Criminal Court concerning the happenings in Lagos during the governorship election on the 18th of March.
Rhodes-Vivour, speaking with ARISE News anchors on Friday, said that while the Labour Party had filed and submitted a petition to the electoral tribunal challenging the process and credibility of the elections in Lagos, they also went ahead to file a petition to the ICC, reporting select people for the violence that occurred during the elections. “We have incident reports across almost 700 to 800 polling units of violence on particular people,” he said. The LP candidate then said that he was committed to helping the people who were the recipients of this violence.
When asked about those he listed in his petition to the ICC, he remarked, “People that were on that list were people like MC Oluomo, Mr. Onanuga and all the people that were instigating hatred and ethnic profiling and all the people that were also involved in violence on that day.” He also remarked that he believed that some traditional rulers who he would have to confirm, were on the list for instigating fights and pronouncing an Oro festival on the day of the election. “You know that Oro is not supposed to be during the day, that is a desecration of a rite that has been old in Yoruba culture for a very long time… then it also shows how seriously that you are taking the rite that you are supposed to be a custodian of.”
Rhodes-Vivour emphasized that the gubernatorial elections in Lagos was not free and fair. “The elections were a complete sham. I feel that the ruling party in Lagos declared war on Lagosians….It was marred with a lot of violence and there is an idea that this was an ethnic coloration. But when you look deeper, that was not what it was, that was the bogeyman that helped them hide what they were trying to do, which was almost literally want to create a one-party state.”
When questioned on what he would say to the people who were trying to promote peace after the elections, he said, “Healing cannot happen when there is no justice, you cannot say you want peace, but want peace of a graveyard” He then claimed that the ruling party was trying to gaslight people into forgetting about the issue, enabling them to sweep matters under the carpet. “I think it will be disaster that so many people came out to vote for you, so many people chose hope over fear, and you just disappear and go quiet… I want to know that we’ve given our all to make sure that in 2027, we have a peaceful election in Lagos state.” He then reiterated that it was not just about him, but about the future of the democracy of Lagos, saying that the fight against the wrongdoings was for the sake of democracy.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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