Entertainment & SocietyGbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s Road to Alausa Under Threat

Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour’s Road to Alausa Under Threat

August 15, (THEWILL) – Architect and public policy expert, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, a former staunch member of the Peoples Democratic Party, has emerged winner of the Labour Party’s governorship primary in Lagos.

Gbadebo was declared winner of the LP substitution primary during the week after polling 111 votes to defeat Moshood Salvador, a former chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 102 votes. Unfortunately, the outcome of the substitution primary and the manner it was conducted has not gone down well with a few people.

A substitution primary is conducted if the candidate for an elective position withdraws from the race, becomes incapacitated or dies before the election. First, Salvador rejected the outcome of the election, alleging that some delegates who voted were not meant to participate in the primary. Secondly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had published the name of Ifagbemi Awamaridi as the LP governorship candidate for Lagos in the 2023 elections, but the LP deputy chairman said Awamaridi had written formally that he was withdrawing from the race, claiming that he was a placeholder for the party’s governorship candidate slot. But Awamaridi rejected the claim that he had withdrawn from the race, adding that he had sworn an affidavit of non-withdrawal before the Federal High Court in Abuja. Besides, he is still very much alive and not dead.

Although he is not a green horn in politics, this would however be the first time he would signify his interest to occupy the seat of power in Lagos State. He had hoped to clinch the governorship ticket on the platform of the PDP, but unfortunately, Dr. Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran aka Jandor, trounced him at the poll. He took his defeat graciously and had hoped that he would perhaps be picked as Jandor’s deputy from the line up of aspirants. But that was not to be as Jandor instead picked a political neophyte in the person of actress and movie producer, Funke Akindele. That was the cue he needed to switch camps which he did to the Labour Party. But whether the issues that have engulfed the substitution primary will enable him to represent the party at the polls, still remains to be seen.

Young, vibrant and charismatic, Rhodes-Vivour began his political journey in 2016 when he contested for the position of Chairman, Ikeja Local Government Area on the platform of KOWA Party. When that didn’t work, he joined the PDP in 2017 and in 2019, emerged the PDP Senatorial candidate representing Lagos West District. He lost out to the eventual winner, Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, who is struggling to represent the people of Yewa, Ogun State in the senate.

Rhodes-Vivour challenged the results of the election at the Election Petition Tribunal based on widespread targeted violence in PDP strongholds. He alleged that based on INEC’s declaration of cancelled results due to violence across three local governments, 94,301 votes was more than the 79,801 difference between himself and the APC candidate, which should have necessitated a rerun as was done in three other local governments in the Lagos West Senatorial District.

An activist, Rhodes-Vivour started his activism with his Anti-GMO struggle by debating with the Minister of Agriculture in the national dailies as well as on National television. In 2017, he led a 2,000-man march to the Senate in partnership with environmental activists. He is an avid campaigner of the teaching of history as a subject in Nigerian schools.

He comes from a long line of lawyers. His parents are lawyers. He is the great-grandson of Justice S.B Rhodes, the second indigenous judge ever appointed, a grandson to Chief, Justice A.R.W Rhodes-Vivour and a nephew to Supreme court Justice, Bode Rhodes-Vivour. He is a great-great-grandson to William Allen Vivour, the single most successful 19th-century planter in Africa.

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