From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has said that the party has no deal with Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma in respect of the forthcoming governorship election in the state.
This is as the party declared its poise to win the November poll and control the reins of power in Imo State.
LP National Vice Chairman (South East) Chief Innocent Okeke declared this in a statement on Monday, following a recent viral video indicating that Governor Uzodinma may have influenced the emergence of Sen. Athan Achonu as the governorship candidate of the party in the oncoming election.
Okeke said that he was part of the committee that conducted the primary election, insisting that at no point was eternal influence suspected or detected.
Describing the process as transparent and seamless, he attributed the said video to enemies of the party who were bent on cutting short its imminent victory in the Imo governorship.
The zonal chairman, therefore, urged any aggrieved members of the party especially the 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 supervise the primary, security agents and observers were on the 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 likely winners 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.