Olumide Oworu, a Nollywood actor and politician, has finally spoken out after his name was omitted from the ballot papers during the Lagos State House of Assembly election.
Olumide, a Labour Party candidate, ran for the Surulere Constituency seat in the March 18 election, but his name was not on the ballot.
He was defeated in the election by his colleague in the entertainment industry, Desmond Elliot of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who received the most votes.
Olumide has issued an official statement in response to the controversy surrounding his election participation.
He insisted that he was not seeking clout and blamed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to comply with a court order issued on February 2 directing the INEC to open its website for the Labour Party to submit the names of its candidates or accept manual submission.
He wrote, in part:
“Regarding the authenticity of my candidacy and my name not appearing on the ballot, that is a situation that came about due to the failure of the INEC to comply with the subsisting judgment of the Federal High Court delivered on the 2nd of February 2023 in Suit No: FHC/ABJ/CS/2115/2022 wherein INEC was ordered to open her website to allow the labour party to submit the list of her candidates or accept the same manually immediately. INEC failed to upload the names on the list sent by the Labor Party in October 2022. I assure you that this endeavor was not one for clout but was borne out of a genuine desire for change.”
Read his full statement below,
