Imo guber: Athan Achonu remains LP candidate
Ahead of the November 2023 gubernatorial election in Imo State, the Labour Party ( LP) has insisted that Senator Athan Nneji Achonu, remains its flag bearer.
The clarification came on the heels of a purported ruling of a Federal High Court Sitting in Bayelsa, declaring Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu Joseph (Ikenga) as the authentic candidate of the party for the poll.
In the said ruling, Justice Emmanuel Akko upheld the party primaries, conducted under the leadership of the factional chairman of the party, Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa, on April 16, 2023, adding that the National Chairman, Julius Abure was “restrained by the FCT High Court from parading himself as National Officer of the Labour Party, LP on April 5, 2023, over criminality, bordering on forgery, perjury and criminal conspiracy with financial malfeasance.”
The court ruled that the primary election conducted by Julius Abure and Umar Farouk Ibrahim on April 15, 2023, was “null and void alongside the candidates that emerged from such illegality, which constituted contempt of the FCT High Court Restraining Order.”
However, reacting to the ruling, Imo Chief Chime Nzeribe, the campaign Director General of the Imo Labour Party gubernatorial candidate, assured Imolites and the public to “ignore the laughable insinuations and misinformation that a court in Bayelsa affirmed one Joseph Ukegbu as the Labour Party gubernatorial candidate.”
He accused the Ukegbu group of spreading misinformation.
According to the him: “The true position of things is that one Basil Maduka brought a suit against Joseph Ukegbu and this suit was dismissed by a court in Bayelsa State.
“Following the dismissal of this suit, which did not include Senator Athan Achonu as a defendant, the Ukegbu group started spreading the misinformation. “Imolites should ignore this misinformation aimed at distracting the efforts of Senator Athan Achonu and Labour Party in rescuing the state from misrule and maladministration.”
He insisted that Achonu is not only the Labour Party gubernatorial candidate but also on track to winning the November 11 Gubernatorial election.
Recall that a State High Court, sitting in Edo in May dismissed the notice of suspension issued against the embattled National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, by some party members at the LP Ward 3 in Esan North East of Edo State.
The judge, Justice Emmanuel Aihamoje, thrashed the case for lacking merit, saying the party ward executive in Uromi lacked the power under the Labour Party Constitution, particularly Acts 13 & 17 and the Electoral Act 2022, as amended, to remove the national chairman of the party.
