A chieftain of the Labour Party (LP) in Kwara State, Mr Abdulhakeem Amao, has accused the leadership of the party of imposition of Dr Mike Omotosho as the flag bearer of the party.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos, Amao, who is also a gubernatorial aspirant of the party, said the leadership of Kwara LP manipulated the outcome of its governorship primary in favour of Omotosho, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

He said: “I won the gubernatorial primary of Kwara LP which was witnessed by over 200 delegates of the party in November 2014.I was the sole aspirant and I became the flag bearer of the party following the unanimous decision of the delegates of the party.

“There were four officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) present during the primary and the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the outcome of the exercise is with INEC as we speak. I was then shocked to discover that my name had been replaced with that of one Mike Omotosho, who defected to our party a few weeks after losing the contest for the PDP’s governorship ticket.”

In his response, the secretary of Kwara State chapter of LP, Mr Abdulkareem Onagun said Amao’s allegations were not true.

“He did not get the ticket. He was supposed to fulfil some necessary requirements before he could become our flag bearer but he did not. He was asked to pay N6.5 million for nomination form but he did not pay. He kept promising us endlessly and because of that, the national leadership of the party in Abuja asked our state chairman, Mr Babalola Johnson to pick the form pending the time we would get another interested person that would be willing to pay for the nomination form.