Fact-Check: X User Shared Misleading Claim on LP Missing on Ifelodun LCDA Election
BY: Oluwaseye Ogunsanya
Claim/Full Text
An X (formerly Twitter) user, @joe_brestcretus claimed in a post that Labour Party (LP) was not part of the parties included in the ballot paper for the Lagos State Local Government Elections.
Backing up his claim, the claimant attached an image of a ballot paper belonging to Ifelodun LCDA which had only the logos of All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on it.
Screenshot of the claim
The post has gained 376 reposts, 257 quotes, 568 likes and over 1M views as at the time of writing this. It can also be found here.
Recall that the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) conducted Local Government elections for 57 council chairmanship positions and 376 councillor seats across the 20 Local Governments, 37 LCDAs, and 376 wards in the state yesterday, 12 July and the results have since been announced with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) sweeping the polls.
Given the claim’s potential to further inflame an already tense political atmosphere, particularly in light of ongoing alignments and realignments ahead of the 2027 general elections, FactCheckAfrica set out to verify its authenticity.
Verdict: Misleading!
Verification
FactCheckAfrica conducted a Google search to determine the number of political parties registered for the Lagos State Local Government elections. Our search led us to a Premium Times report citing information from the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC).
According to the report, 139 chairmanship candidates from 10 political parties contested elections across 57 Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Areas. In addition, 842 councillorship candidates from 14 political parties vied for seats in the state’s 376 wards.
LASIEC revealed that although 19 political parties initially expressed interest in participating, only 15 submitted candidate lists. Among them, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was the only party to field candidates in all 57 councils and 376 wards, making it the most widely represented party.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) contested in 45 councils and 259 wards, while the Labour Party fielded candidates for 22 chairmanship positions and 130 councillorship seats. The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) presented six chairmanship and 21 councillorship candidates.
Other parties that participated in the elections included: Accord, African Action Congress (AAC), Action Alliance (AA), Allied People’s Movement (APM), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Social Democratic Party (SDP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Young Progressive Party (YPP), Youth Party (YP), Action Peoples Party (APP), and African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Based on the details above, it follows that in any local government area or ward where a political party did not field candidates, that party will not appear on the ballot paper. This was further confirmed by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) here.
According to FIJ, after obtaining a sample of the chairmanship ballot paper for the Local Governments elections, it found that only five political parties were contesting in Ajeromi-Ifelodun LGA. However, the ballot paper circulating bore the label ‘Ifelodun LCDA’, which may have caused some confusion.
Screenshot of the LGA ballot paper obtained by FIJ
The absence of certain parties particularly LP in the LCDA poll aligns with a statement made by the Lagos State Chairperson of the Labour Party (LP), Dayo Ekong, who announced on May 17 that the party would only field candidates in areas where it had successfully conducted primaries.
Ekong further revealed that the party would be contesting in only 26 out of the 57 councils in Lagos State, noting that the party would not be fielding candidates in 30 councils for strategic reasons. She also listed some of the councils where LP would not be fielding candidates, including Ikeja, Surulere, Agege, Igbogbo-Baiyeku, Lagos Island East, Lagos Island West, and Ajeromi-Ifelodun.
Conclusion
Based on our findings, it can be concluded that the indeed Labour Party is not on the ballot paper for Ajeromi-Ifelodun LCDA, this is because the party did not field a candidate for the election. Therefore, the claim is misleading.
