Leadership of Labour Party (LP) said it has not entered into any deal with Governor Uzodimma.
This is as the party declared its poise to win the November 11 poll and control the reins of power in the state.
LP’s National Vice Chairman (South East), Chief Innocent Okekem, made the clarification, yesterday, against the backdrop of a recent viral video indicating that Uzodimma may have influenced the emergence of Senator Achonu as governorship candidate of the party in the oncoming election to his own favour.
Okeke said he was part of the committee that conducted the party’s primary in Imo State and that at no point was any external influence suspected or detected in the process that threw up Achonu as winner.
Describing the process as transparent and seamless, he attributed the video to enemies of the party who were bent on cutting short the party’s imminent victory in the Imo governorship poll.
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He, therefore, urged aggrieved members of the party, especially other governorship aspirants to join forces with the winner and ensure victory for the party at the poll.
“The party conducted the freest, fairest and most credible primary elections for the emergence of a candidate. The exercise reaffirmed the genuine call for a paradigm shift in line with the new Nigeria mantra. Apart from having INEC staff to supervise the primary, security agents and observers were on ground to observe the entire exercise. The winner of the election, Senator Athan Achonu did not spring a surprise as he was always among the top three of likely winner of the election.
“Based on the foregoing, I urge every aggrieved aspirant to apply caution and shun any form of blackmail against the party members as we recently saw in a trending voice message, purporting that our governorship candidate, Senator Athan Achonu has a deal with the incumbent governor to undermine the party’s expected victory in Imo which is not true. The party and our candidate will accommodate everyone in the scheme of things. I, therefore, seize this medium to salute all the aspirants for their commitment and conduct throughout the period of canvassing for votes,” Okeke said.
Also, a group of elders in Imo State have denied endorsing any candidate. The elders, in a statement jointly signed by Chief Nicholas Oparaku and Elder Isaac Okoronkwo, on behalf of “Concerned Elders in Imo State” in Abuja, dispelled media reports suggesting they have endorsed a particular candidate in the contest.
Part of the statement read: “For clarity, Imo elders have not endorsed any candidate, neither have the elders delegated or authorized any person to issue any form of endorsement on any governorship candidate for now. To set the record straight, elders in Imo State have been reviewing the state of affairs of the state and in line with the fears, anxieties and apprehension of the people of the State with a view to finding ways to salvage the situation and return inclusiveness, peace, harmony and political stability. As elders, the focus must be solely on the fortune, interest, wellbeing and rights of the entire people of Imo State, irrespective of political, sectional, religious, clan and partisan affiliations and not on a particular individual or political party. The reported endorsement of a particular candidate by certain individuals purporting such to be the resolution of elders of the state is therefore embarrassing as it portrays the elders as being partisan and politically compromised.”
The elders added that those behind the said endorsement must know that the choice of who governs the state resides with the people in an election.
“As elders, our duty at this moment is to ensure that the people enjoy the free hand to elect a governor of their choice without any form of coercion. It is imperative at the moment that the elders preserve their integrity as the non-partisan conscience of the state in the search for direction at this critical time.
“As elders we have a duty to preserve the democratic tenets of fairness, unhindered participation, right to aspiration and freedom of the people to choose their leaders without recourse to partisan coercion, blackmail and promotion of the narrow-minded interest of a particular individual,” they said.
Credit: Daily Sun